from dual control. They depend directly upon local managers for their appointment, tenure, and extra compensation. At the same time, the major portion of their salaries and all claims thereto depend upon their fulfilling the requirements of the board. The situation explains their general discontent. It must be stated, however, that the high efficiency of the great body of the teachers is beyond question.

TRAINING COLLEGES.

Control and support.-The necessity of special training for teachers was recognized at the very beginning of the commissioners' administration, and a normal school or training college was established by them for this purpose at Dublin (Marlborough Street Training College) and opened for students in 1838. Only young women were admitted at first, but a department for men was added in 1842. The model schools which had been previously established at Dublin became practice schools for the college. In addition to the Marlborough Street Training College, which is under the direct control of the commissioners, three denominational colleges have been established, viz, the Church of Ireland Training College for both sexes and two Roman Catholic training colleges, St. Patrick's (Drumcondra) for men, and Our Lady of Mercy Training College (Dublin) for women. These are under inspection and share in the government grant.

All of the colleges have boarding departments; students who obtain Queen's scholarships are provided with free board and tuition.

Prior to 1890 the government grant furnished the entire support of the official college, while the denominational colleges received only a portion of their support from this source. Dissatisfaction with this inequality led to a change of basis in the year specified. Under present arrangements the government allows fixed grants, as follows: (a) In all the colleges (Marlborough Street included) £50 a year for men students and £35 a year for women; (b) in addition, a diploma bonus of £10 for men and £7 for women for each year of training, on the award of the diploma for training, after a probationary service of two years in the actual work of teaching. If the new grants yield a surplus upon the certified expenditure, such surplus may be applied to scholarships, prizes, the purchase of apparatus and educational appliances, or any other suitable purposes approved by the commissioners of national education. (Report 1890, pp. 24, 25).

The pupils in respect to whom these grants are made must pass successfully the inspectors' examinations, which are held annually at the respective schools. The examinations for women differ somewhat from those for men, the requirements in mathematics and science being less, and needlework, cutting garments, and kindergarten exercises being added.

Statistics. The number of pupils in training in 1890 was 514, of whom 363 completed their course during the year. Of these, 172 had

entered for a one-year's course and 191 for the complete course of two years. The total grant to the colleges for the year was £139,146 78. ($676,251).

Training of pupil teachers.-The regulations as to the training of pupil teachers by their respective head teachers are very explicit. Pupil teachers employed in the model schools really receive a superior order of professional training.

Training by organizing teachers.—The commissioners appoint certain teachers, whose office it is to undertake the organization of large and important schools and to prepare the teaching staff of such schools for the better discharge of their duties. From the detailed instructions issued for the staff of organizers, it appears that their work is similar to that carried on in our own teachers' institutes. They give lectures upon school organization, methods of instruction, discipline, school sanitation, etc. As they are located at schools actually in progress, they are able to supplement their lectures by practical applications and by criticisms of the work of the ordinary teachers. Thus they may be said to combine institute instruction with the exercises of practice schools. No recent report upon this feature of the system is at hand.

WORK OF SCHOOLS.

Course of study.-The course of study in the Irish schools, as in those of England and Scotland, comprises obligatory and optional branches. The former, which are arranged in a graded course covering six years or classes, include reading, spelling, writing, and arithmetic in all classes; grammar, geography in classes III-VI; bookkeeping, classes V-VI; needlework for girls, classes II-VI; and agriculture for boys, classes IV-VI. Vocal music and drawing are optional class subjects. Other optional branches which may be taken by pupils in different classes are kindergarden exercises in the infant, or first, class; geometry, algebra, mensuration, trigonometry, handicraft (for boys); sewing machine, domestic economy, cookery, dairying, management of poultry (for girls), and hygiene; also the physical sciences, navigation, classics, French, German, Irish, and even instrumental music,1

Examinations.-A portion of the Government grant is allowed upon a scale of payments graded for each class and subject, at a certain rate per capita of passes at the annual examination. No child can be pre

1 Great care is exercised to prevent the interruption of the secular programme by religious exercises. It is especially ordered that religious instruction must be so arranged, (a) that each school shall be open to children of all communions for combined literary and moral instruction; (b) that, in respect of religious instruction, due regard be had to parental right and authority, and accordingly that no child shall receive or be present at any religious instruction of which his parents or guardians disapprove; and (c) that the time for giving religious instruction be so fixed that no child shall be thereby in effect excluded, directly or indirectly, from the other advantages which the school affords. (Official Rules and Regulations, 1887, p. 8.)

sented for examination who does not make at least one attendance' in the last fortnight of the month preceding the inspector's examination. The system of payment upon results seems to have met with less opposition in Ireland than in England or Scotland, probably because only a small portion of the grant has been thus allotted.

The following statistics show the status of 8,175 schools examined in 1890 with respect to attendance, classification of pupils, and passes: The number of pupils who were examined on the day of inspection was, boys, 216,092; girls, 277,090, or a total of 543,182.

Of the total number of pupils examined in infants' grade (114,591) 27,449, about 24 per cent, were taught by kindergarten methods.

The report shows that at least one-fifth of the pupils presented for examination had pursued extra optional subjects. Music led the list with 70,315; drawing followed with 45,911; algebra, 12,337. Altogether pupils were presented in 27 extra subjects. Greek and Latin both appear in the list, the former with 10 pupils, the latter with 142.

Course of study in training colleges.-The course of study for the training colleges includes all the subjects enumerated for the elementary schools together with the theory and practice of teaching. Various branches of industrial training are included in the programmes, among which, as also in the actual application of the programmes, agriculture holds the chief place.

MISCELLANEOUS PROVISIONS.

Supply of text-books.-The sanction of the commissioners, as has been noted, was necessary for all text-books used in the schools. At first, owing to the lack of suitable books, they were obliged to publish their own; this necessity having passed away, it became evident that supplies could not be obtained so readily and cheaply from any other source, and consequently the books in use, whether their own publications or those of private authors, are sold by the commissioners and delivered to the pupils at cost price. The annual expenditure for books and other requisites furnished is about $25,000 more than the receipts from sales. Average attendance required and length of school year.-As a rule, in

The roll is made up each day. A child who is excused before the literary exercises of the day are completed is not counted in making up the attendance.

order that a school should be recognized by the commissioners it must maintain an average daily attendance1 of 30 pupils. Special provisions are made, however, for the effects of epidemics, exceptionally severe weather, etc. A school year must be at least 200 days, and must offer at least four hours' secular instruction daily (including, if necessary, a playtime of half an a hour) for five days in the week.

Arrangements are made for half-time attendance of factory children, who may be presented for examination and secure payments upon a varying record of attendance, of which the maximum is either 135 days of three hours each or 66 days of six hours each.

Provisions for industrial training.-In their fourth report (1837) the commissioners discussed plans for industrial education and for fostering schools of industry. They proposed the immediate establishment of such a school in the vicinity of Dublin, to be equipped with shops and farm. In their report for the next year they announced as an indispensable condition for aid toward a school of industry, that a work room "shall be annexed to it if it be situated in a city or town, and if it be a country or rural school that a certain quantity of land shall be provided for garden culture. They will consider schools for girls as of the class of elementary schools, but they will require that instruction be there given in sewing, knitting, and other works suited to females." In the following report (1839) they notice the establishment of their first model farm. This feature of their work has been steadily developed and they have now two agricultural schools, i. e., the Albert Model Agricultural School, Glasnevin, near Dublin, and the Munster Model Agricultural and Dairy National School. The commissioners report in 1890 also 47 school farms in connection with ordinary national schools, and 29 school gardens; from the former 701 students and from the latter 437 were presented for examination. The Glasnevin school serves as an experimental farm for the Marlborough Street Training College; a dairy school is maintained in connection therewith, another at Cork, and departments for dairy instruction at most of the farms.

An experiment in itinerant dairy instruction made in the neighborhood of Dungannon in 1888 has proved sufficiently successful to warrant an extension of the work. 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. The commissioners also report that instruction in handicraft has been recently added to the extra branches upon which the boys of the higher classes of the national schools may be examined. Arrangements for classes in spinning, weaving, and other cottage industries are in progress, the Government having sanctioned result fees for proficiency in these arts.

Needlework and knitting have become a part of the course in all

The average daily attendance is found by dividing the total number of completo attendances by the number of regular school days.

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national schools for girls, and in many higher classes lace-making is successfully taught.

Domestic economy was taught in 1890 to 3,933 girls in 300 schools. It is generally conceded that the industrial education of girls is most carefully looked after in the convent schools.

Notwithstanding the efforts of the commissioners to promote industrial training the languishing state of many native industries and of the arts in general was urged in Parliament as evidence that technical instruction is not sufficiently regarded. If this be true, however, it is undoubtedly due to causes beyond the control of the commissioners.

In the theoretical elaboration of the system whose principal features have here been outlined, apparently no detail has been overlooked. Judged from the American standpoint, the system would seem to be entirely wanting in the force and spirit of spontaneous action. Nothing else gives a system so strong a hold upon the sympathies of a people nor such powerful effect upon their development. Systems wanting in this element have the character rather of expedients than of deep-rooted institutions, and to this general rule the Irish system is no exception. Its results as a practical expedient may be judged from several particulars.

The average daily attendance maintained in the schools is low, being, as already noted, but 10 per cent of the total population, 47 per cent of the total enrollment, and 59 per cent of the average annual enrollment. This is explained in part by the sparse population of many districts, the poverty of the people, and the absolute demand for the help of the children in agricultural regions. The failure of the system to modify class distinctions is due in some measure to the fact that it has little attraction for the rural gentry of Ireland. In the chief cities the system, it is said, can not compete with the schools of the "Christian Brothers." 2

SECONDARY AND SUPERIOR SCHOOLS OF IRELAND.

In dealing with education in Ireland the General Government does not confine itself to elementary schools. To complete our view of the subject reference must be made to secondary and superior instruction, although details can not here be considered.

In Ireland, as in Great Britain and in Europe generally, secondary

See article by Prof. Mahaffy in the Nineteenth Century, January, 1893, pp. 21, 22. 2 In the debate in the House of Commons over the new iaw, Mr. O'Brien, member for Ireland, is reported as saying, "The Christian Brothers had practically the education of the whole Irish urban population in their hands, for their schools were situated in all the chief centers of population. The most influential men in every city and large town in Ireland had been their pupils. Their system was regarded in Ireland as the really national system. It was adapted to the genius of the people, it was deeply grounded in their respect and affection." (London Times, March 23, 1892.)