by the
end of the first year, while only 33.9 per cent of those non-graduates
who fail have left so early. More than 50 per cent of the failing
non-graduates continue in school to near the end of the second year. By
that time about 90 per cent of the non-failing non-graduates have been
lost from school. By a combination of the above groups we get the
percentages of all non-graduates lost by successive semesters.

CUMULATIVE PERCENTAGES OF ALL NON-GRADUATES LOST BY SUCCESSIVE SEMESTERS

LOST BY END
OF SEMESTER 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8

Per Cent 33.7 53.4 62.6 76.2 81.9 90.7 94.0 98.6

These percentages of non-graduates indicate that more than 50 per cent
of those who do not graduate are gone by the end of the first year,
but that there are a few who continue beyond four years without
graduating.

2. THE LATER DISTRIBUTION OF PUPILS BY SEMESTERS

Consideration is here given to the number of the total entrants
remaining in school for each successive semester, and then to the
accompanying percentages of failure for each group. The following
figures show the rapid decline in numbers.

THE PERSISTENCE OF PUPILS IN SCHOOL, BY SEMESTERS

END OF SEMESTER 1 2 3 4 5 6 Graduate

6,141 (Total) 4,723 3,893 3,508 2,935 2,697 2,234 1,936

Percentages 76.9 63.4 57.1 47.8 43.9 36.4 31.5

As was pointed out in Section 3 of Chapter I, the above group does not
include any increment to its own numbers by means of transfer from
other classes or schools. We find, accompanying this reduction in the
number of pupils, which shows more than 50 per cent gone by the end of
the second year in school, that there is no corresponding reduction in
the percentage of pupils failing each semester on the basis of the
number of those in school for that semester.

PERCENTAGE OF PUPILS FAILING OF THE PUPILS IN SCHOOL FOR THAT PERIOD

Semesters 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8

Per Cent 34.2 37.3 38.5 40.2 38.2 37.1 30.0 24.0

There is no difficulty in grasping the simple and definite significance
of these figures, for they tell us that the percentage of pupils
failing increases for the first four semesters, slightly declines for
two semesters, with a greater decline for two more semesters. These
percentages of failures are based on the number of pupil