District No. 31.-E. W. Birmingham, Esq., Limerick.

Co. Limerick-Baronies of Limerick (County of City), and Pobblebrien. Co. Clare-Baronies of Bunratty, Clonderalaw, Ibrickane, Islands, Moyarta, and Tulla.

District No. 32.-Patrick Quinlan, Esq., Galway.

Co. Galway-Baronies of Ballinahinch, Clare, Dunkellin, Galway (County of the Town of), Kiltartan, Moycullen, and Ross.

Co. Clare-Baronies of Burren, Corcomroe, and Inchiquin.

District No. 33.-J. A. Macdonnell, Esq., Ballinasloe.

Co. Galway-Baronies of Athenry, Ballymoe, Clanmacnowen, Dunmore,
Kilconnell, Killian, Leitrim, Longford, Loughrea, and Tiaquin.
Co. Roscommon-Baronies of Athlone, Ballintober South, and Moycarn.

District No. 34.—Arthur Davitt, Esq., Wicklow.

Co. Wicklow-Baronies of Arklow, Ballinacor North, Ballinacor South, New-
castle, Rathdown, Shillelagh, Talbotstown Lower, and Talbotstown Upper.
Co. Wexford-Baronies of Ballaghkeen, Gorey, and Scarawalsh.
Co. Carlow-Baronies of Forth, Rathvilly, and St. Mullins Upper.

XXXI. INSPECTORS' REPORTS on Examination of Teachers held in the Year 1848;* also REPORTS upon AGRICULTURAL and INDUSTRIAL SCHOOLS.

No.1.-General Report by EDWARD BUTLER, Esq., A.M., Head Inspector of National Schools, on the Examination of Teachers held in the Year 1848, in Districts 13, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, and 34.

April, 1849. GENTLEMEN, I have the honor to transmit to you a general report of the examinations which I held last year in nine Districts, in conjunction with the respective Local Inspectors, for the purpose of classing the male teachers in accordance with the standard of qualification adopted by the Commissioners in 1847, when they increased the salaries, and altered the scale of classification.

I was engaged on this duty from the beginning of April until the end of October, except during a few days at Easter, and a fortnight in August, when I was directed to proceed to the South on a special inquiry.

The group of Districts in which I was instructed to conduct the examinations, comprises a large portion of the county of Cavan, parts of the counties of Armagh, Monaghan, Tipperary, and Waterford, and the entire province of Leinster, with the exception of some baronies in the counties of Carlow and Kilkenny, and in the Queen's County.

The National Schools under male Teachers, in operation at the time the examinations were held in these nine districts, appear from the returns furnished to the Board to have been 664 in number. The teachers of 178 schools did not present themselves: 26 of the absentees are Workhouse teachers, and 100 have assigned proper and sufficient grounds for their non-attendance; the absence of 52 has not been satisfactorily accounted for.

*The Appendices alluded to in these Reports are contained in the folio edition.

The number of masters examined, including assistants and seven Workhouse teachers, was 504; and in the following table are given the results of their classification according to the returns forwarded to the Office from time to time in the course of the year.

From this table it appears that of the 115 Probationers who were found qualified, nearly one-half are to be retained as Probationers, their acquirements being as yet too low to entitle them to admission into the Third Class. The majority of them are young, and capable of improvement; and there is every reason to hope, that by close application to their studies for a year, they will be enabled to pass with credit through the next examination.

As regards the classed teachers, about two-thirds of those in the Third and Second Classes, and a few more than one-half of those in the First Class, are to continue in the rank which they held previously to the examination.

We had to report 12 of the teachers as unqualified for their office, and to recommend the depression of 31. Had the standard of qualification been rigidly applied as the sole test of fitness, there is no doubt that several other teachers would have been reduced from the class in which they have now been retained. But in determining the position a teacher is to occupy in the scale of classification, his character as well as his abilities, the efficiency and discipline of his school as well as his literary attainments, are to be taken into account; and we considered ourselves warranted in maintaining in his rank a teacher whose school was conducted in a creditable manner, and who appeared to have prepared with sufficient industry the subjects of examination appointed for his class, although on the day of his trial his qualifications may not have attained the prescribed minimum. In the case of persons seeking for promotion, however, we required a competent knowledge of the subjects specified for the class to which the candidate was aspiring, and adhered carefully to the conditions set forth in the programme. Notwithstanding, we were enabled to recommend 166 teachers for promotion.

This result shows clearly how groundless were the apprehensions of those who thought the standard of attainments adopted by the Commissioners too high, and feared it would operate to the detriment of the best interests of the schools, by withdrawing from the

Depressed.

generality of the teachers all chance of advancement, and depriving them of any further motive for self-improvement.

The increase in the salaries of the teachers, consequent on the recent classification, amounts to no more than £486 for the nine districts. The salaries they were in receipt of amounted to the sum of £7,734, which has now been raised to £8,220, distributed among the several classes as follows:

58 Probationers, who were in receipt of £604, will now receive £580 169 Third Class Teachers,

2,218, 3,100,

2,486 3,216

The decrease in the amount now paid to the Probationers arises from the depression of 6 Third Class Teachers, by which the salary of each was reduced from £14 to £10.

The particulars of the examination, together with some details concerning the schools, have been tabulated, and are given in the Appendix to this Report, under the respective districts, where they are grouped according to the class for which each teacher was recommended.

By the regulations which the Commissioners laid down for the conduct of the examinations, the teachers of each class were required to attend on two days, and during six hours each day; one-half the time to be employed in writing answers to a series of printed questions prepared for the purpose--the remaining six hours to be devoted to a viva voce examination on the different subjects appointed in the programme for the several classes. In order to relieve the teachers, as far as practicable, from the expense which a distant journey and a lengthened absence from home would entail upon them, the Local Inspectors were requested to select as many distinct places of meeting as they would think most likely to suit the general convenience of the teachers, yet so as to insure a sufficient attendance at each point. Accordingly, five of the Inspectors with whom I had to act, recommended that the teachers be assembled in three separate parts of their respective districts; two appointed but one place of meeting, and two named two places each. I had thus to attend in 21 distinct localities, in all of which Probationers and Third and Second Class Teachers were examined, while in 13 of them First Class Teachers also attended.

In consequence of the selection of these different places of examination, it was necessary to provide several sets of questions for each class; and in order to guard against the possibility of teachers obtaining a previous knowledge of the questions to which they would be required to furnish answers in writing, the same set was not used twice in the same district, and the printed papers were collected with the exercises at the close of the proceedings. The questions will be found after the Reports on the Examinations; series A, containing such as were drawn up for the First Class, series B for the Second Class, and series C for the Third Class.

In correcting the written exercises, the two marks, "satisfactory" and "imperfect," were employed, including under the former head, together with the answers which were in every way satisfactory, those which showed on the part of the teacher a fair knowledge of

the subject, though perhaps they may have contained some slight inaccuracies. Under the head "imperfect" were classed the answers which evinced some acquaintance with the matter to which the question referred, and also those in which an important point had been overlooked or omitted, although they might be correct in other respects. The answers which could not be brought under either of these heads, were not taken into account.

In the following table are summed up the particulars concerning these written exercises :

With regard to the First Class Teachers, it appears from this, that, on an average, about three-fifths of the questions were left unanswered in Natural Philosophy, and about two-fifths in the other subjects.

The average number of answers received from Second Class Teachers to the questions in series B, and from Third Class Teachers

to those in series C, is still lower, except with regard to the Arithmetic in the papers of the latter series, where the average number of answers is 13 in 20, higher than in the corresponding papers of the other two series. It must, however, be borne in mind that for the first and second classes, questions in Algebra are included under the same head as Arithmetic, and that the arithmetical questions themselves are of a more difficult character, having been, in many cases, framed for the purpose of testing the facility with which the teachers could explain the principles of the various processes. And though teachers generally are ready and accurate in the mere mechanical workings of a rule, the majority of them are but imperfectly acquainted with the principles upon which the rules depend, and almost invariably fail to explain either principles or processes in simple and correct language.

This want of accuracy and neatness of expression is observable throughout all the exercises, with some few remarkable exceptions. The style is loose and ungrammatical, and bears unmistakable evidence of the neglect with which English Composition has been heretofore treated in our schools. The teachers, however, are beginning to feel their great deficiency in this respect, and we see every reason to expect that so important a branch will be introduced ere long into all National Schools, and that a judicious and systematic course of instruction in Dictation and Composition will hold its legitimate place in the routine of school business.

The written exercises have also brought forth another defect to which the teachers must at once turn their serious attention, I allude to the general character of the Penmanship, which, both as to style and execution, is far from satisfactory. I find, with regard to 83 teachers of the First Class, and 175 of the Second, that the penmanship of 98 is marked as tolerable or medium only, of 84 as above the average, and of 76 as bad or indifferent; whereas, for 58 Probationers, and 170 Third Class Teachers, the corresponding numbers are 94, 23, and 111, respectively.

The oral examination to which the teachers were subjected, was destined for the purpose of modifying any too unfavourable impression left upon the mind by the imperfections of hastily written exercises, and of enabling the examiner not only to form some estimate of the usual tone and manner of the teacher in his school, but to test more readily and accurately the extent and character of the information possessed by him on the several subjects he was required to study.

While undergoing the viva voce examination, the teachers were seated in a semicircle at a short distance from a table, at which the District Inspector sat with me, and the questions proposed by either of us, were put round to them in succession until answered, when a mark was entered, in a form prepared for the occasion, opposite the name of the answerer. As the District Inspectors had arranged with me, previously to the examination, the order and length of time each subject should occupy, and by whom it was to be taken up, we had our questions prepared, and the chief heads at leas