a Termed King's scholars in training colleges since the accession of Edward VIL
bTermed King's students since the accession of Edward VII.
For day schools only.

EDUCATION IN IRELAND.

System of national education (elementary).—The system of national education in Ireland dates from 1831, when a board of commissioners for education was created by the Government. In 1845 the board was incorporated by royal charter, and in 1861 a supplemental charter was granted, under which 10 members must be Roman Catholics and 10 Protestants. The board is composed always of representative men, who adhere to the policy of strict impartiality in religious matters. One member of the board of commissioners, the resident commissioner, is a salaried officer. He is the official head of the education department, with offices at Dublin. Upon him rests the responsibility for carrying out the details of the system of national education and also the administration of the Government appropriations for the same. The schools under the supervision and fostering care of the board are supported by State and local funds. They may be denominational schools (i. e., Roman Catholic or Protestant) or mixed in respect to religion, but the rights of parents in the matter are strictly guarded by a conscience clause in the school regulatious, which provides that no child be allowed to attend a religious exercise of a denomination other than his own, except upon the written request of the parent.

Grants to aid in building schoolhouses are allowed by the commissioners, but must be proportioned to the amount raised locally. The State pays also the larger proportion of the salaries of teachers, requiring a minimum annual

augmentation from local funds of £12 ($60). Altogether the State bears about 94 per cent of the annual expenditure for the schools.

To avoid religious complications the State provides the text-books for secular branches, which are issued at a small cost to the pupils.

For purposes of Government supervision the country is divided into 60 districts, which are grouped in 6 divisions, each in charge of a head inspector. Under these are 29 district inspectors, 7 unassigned inspectors, and 10 inspectors' assistants. Inspectors and their assistants are appointed upon examination testing their scholastic and professional qualifications.

Local civil authorities have no control over the schools. The local managers of schools, who are generally clergymen, come into direct relations with the board of commissioners. They appoint and dismiss teachers and arrange the details of the school work. Of a total of 2,936 managers in 1902, 2,363 were clerical.

The commissioners have direct control of a special class of schools called "model schools," for which they provide the buildings. "These schools, as their name indicates, are intended to afford models of the best methods of instruction and organization, and to serve as practice schools for students in training colleges or normal schools.” They numbered 30 in 1902, with an enrollment of 8,969 day pupils, included in the enrollment given in the table below.

A compulsory school law was passed in 1892, but it has been imperfectly enforced, and Ireland still stands below the other divisions of the United Kingdom in respect to school attendance, as is shown by the most recent statistics. These give the following rates of attendance to enrollment:

Convent and monastery schools afford a large part of the provision for elementary education, and receive, under certain conditions, aid from the Government. The number of such schools fulfilling the conditions for aid reported in 1902 was 373, with an enrollment of 110,769.

The schools of the Christian Brothers form a large part of the provision for elementary education, especially in the cities, where their schools are both numerous and flourishing. Their system of education has taken deep hold upon the people, and they number among their former pupils the most influential men in every city and large town of Ireland.

For the training of teachers for the national schools there are one national and six denominational normal schools, which receive grants in aid from the Government. They report 1,090 students in training in 1903. Of the 13,144 teachers employed in the national schools in 1903, 57.2 per cent had received professional training.

Provision for agricultural instruction is an important feature of the national system. Instruction in the theory of agriculture is compulsory in all rural schools for boys in the fourth, fifth, and sixth classes, and optional for girls. Complaint is made that the instruction in this branch has been altogether too bookish; recent efforts are directed to putting it on a practical basis.

The commissioners maintain also two model agricultural schools, and in 1897 they reported 38 school farms in connection with elementary schools and 116 schools having school gardens attached.

The following tables summarize the principal statistics of the national elementary schools for the years named:

The elementary schools are classified with respect to religious denomination as unmixed, i. e., attended by Roman Catholic children exclusively or by I'rotestant children exclusively, and mixed schools, which are attended by Roman Catholic and Protestant children.

The tendency to diminish the number of mixed schools is indicated by the percentages of such schools at different dates, as follows:

Number and classification of teachers in 1887 and in 1903.

The payment of pensions for national school teachers was provided for in 1879 by an act of Parliament.

Expenditure on schools and teaching staffs.-According to the report of the commissioners for the year ending December 31, 1903, the aggregate annual expenditure on the schools from all sources, including Parliamentary grant, school fees, and local subscriptions, amounted to £1,287,963 9s. 11d., as shown in the following table. This would give an average of £2 13s. 114d. for each child in average daily attendance during the year.

In addition to the expenditure for the maintenance of the schools, as above stated, the sum of £25,303 11s. 7d. was paid out of rate for board of public works for buildings, repairs, etc., of vested schools, and £29,347 2s. 9d. contributed from local sources toward the erection of new buildings, etc.

Grants are made to evening schools in which instruction in the subjects of the day school programmes may be given to persons over 18 years of age and to children unable to attend day schools. There are now upward of 1,300 evening schools, with about 26,000 pupils, and the state expenditure upon these has come to over £20,000 in one year, according to latest returns.

Secondary and technical education.-An intermediate education board was established in 1878 for the examination of intermediate or secondary pupils. In 1902 the number of candidates for examination was 8,379 (6,087 boys and 2,292 girls), as compared with 9,073 in 1898 and 6,952 in 1881. There was paid to the managers of the schools the sum of $287,565 (£57,513) on the results of the examination.

The annual income of the intermediate education board is made up of the interest on a Government fund of £1,000,000, placed at the disposal of the board, which yielded in 1903 interest amounting to £27,500 ($137,500), and a sum from the Irish share of the customs and excise duties, which averages about £50,000 ($250,000) annually.

Technical instruction in Ireland is controlled by the department of agriculture and technical instruction, which has an advisory board of technical instruction. The income of the department consists of an annual appropriation of £166,000 and the interest on an original endowment of £205,000. The department aims at the coordination of its work with that of other educational authorities, and in 1901-2 its programme of experimental science was adopted in 152 secondary schools, with 6,412 science pupils. Central institutions under the department are the Royal College of Science, Dublin, and the Metropolitan School of Art, the former of which is being, and the latter is about to be, reorganized. Throughout Ireland technical instruction is being organized under the councils of county boroughs, urban districts, and counties. In Dublin and Belfast in 1902 there were upward of 4,000 students attending the technical schools of the councils. The department is required to appropriate £55,000 annually for technical education. Of this amount £25,000 is allotted to county boroughs and £30,000 for similar purposes elsewhere, the equivalent grants being continued for three years to institutions which had formerly received them.

Proposed reform of the national system of education.--The national system of education briefly outlined above is not satisfactory to the Irish people themselves nor to the Government. The mere fact that the system is not of indigenous origin deprives it of the hearty support of the people, and it is now clearly

recognized by those in authority that radical changes are needed to adapt it to existing conditions and modern demands.

Under this conviction the English Government has recently ordered special investigations of the various divisions of the work. In 1901 a corps of special inspectors was appointed to investigate and report upon the schools aided by the intermediate education board of Ireland. The report of this commission gives detailed information with respect to the schools specified and offers suggestions as to needed improvements. In 1904 a special investigation of the elementary schools of Ireland was ordered by the Government and the task committed to Mr. F. H. Dale, His Majesty's inspector of schools, under the board of education. Mr. Dale was instructed in particular to report how the "typical Irish elementary day schools compared with similarly circumstanced public elementary schools in England as regards premises, equipment, staffing, and instruction, and to what causes deficiencies in economy appear to be chiefly due." The investigation as thus outlined was carried out very thoroughly and systematically, and Mr. Dale's report gives full information upon all the points specified. The emphasis placed upon the comparison between Irish and English schools indicates very clearly the intention of the Government to raise the former to full equality with the latter. At present, as Mr. Dale's report makes clear, the Irish town schools are inferior to the English in respect to all the particulars named, excepting only the qualifications of the teachers themselves. Here Ireland has an advantage over England in the requirement that the head teacher of every school should be trained; furthermore, only adult teachers are recognized in Ireland as part of the school staff. The Irish monitors, unlike the English pupil teachers, have no responsibility with respect either to teaching or discipline. Until a very recent date the salaries of Irish teachers were inferior to those of their English confrères, but recent regulations have improved the financial condition of the former. The greatest drawback to the efficiency of the Irish system is declared by Mr. Dale to be the failure to devolve any financial responsibility on the locality, or to provide sufficient inducement to persons of position and education to take part in the work of school management. It is noticeable that a remedy for this evil suggested by Mr. Dale is in the line of the recent reform of school administration in England. In order to create wider local interest in the schools he advises that they be grouped "under some responsible authority to which the distribution of the state grant could be intrusted subject to supervision by the central office."

The "model schools," which form so marked a feature of the national system in Ireland, are not, according to Mr. Dale, fulfilling the purpose indicated by their title. In his opinion these schools might, however, be developed on the same plan as the higher elementary schools of England, and thus meet the urgent demand for the means of prolonging the education of pupils who are able to continue their studies up to about 16 years of age.

It is evident from the two investigations above referred to that many essentials of a comprehensive system of public education have already been provided in Ireland, but in their present form they lack coordination, efficient direction, and unified purpose. Mr. Dale lays special stress upon the need of the “closest cooperation between the boards of national, intermediate, and technical education, respectively." On account of the absence of any local educational authority in Ireland, "it appears to be specially necessary," he says, "that the proceedings of any one of the central boards should be conducted with constant reference to the possibility of satisfying, without damage to its own aims, the needs of the other branch of education.”

The problem of educational administration in Ireland has thus, it appears,