CONTENTS. Introduction, Number of Schools on Rolls. Vested and Non-vested, Number of Grants to New Schools, Amount of Building and Improvement Grants, Schools attended by Roman Catholic and Protestant Pupils, THN SIXTY-EIGHTH REPORT OF THE COMMISSIONERS OF NATIONAL EDUCATION FOR THE YEAR 1901. ΤΟ HIS EXCELLENCY GEORGE HENRY EARL CADOGAN, K.G. LORD LIEUTENANT-GENERAL AND GENERAL GOVERNOR OF IRELAND, May it please Your Excellency, WE, the Commissioners of National Education in Ireland, submit to Your Excellency this our Sixty-eighth Report. In this Report the statistics of attendances, religious denominations, &c., in the schools, have been compiled for the year ended 31st December, 1901, while the statements connected with the expenditure of the Parliamentary grants, &c., refer to the year ended 31st March, 1902. accommodation and average We cannot report any material increase in the number of National Schools in operation during the past year, but no great increase in this respect was anticipated, as the accom- School modation now provided in our schools, though it may not be quite ample in a few thickly inhabited centres like Dublin and Belfast, yet taken as a whole is more than sufficient for the school-going attendance. population of the country. We have provided places for 897,408 pupils, and if the number who should be in average attendance in Ireland may be estimated on the same basis as in England and Wales, i.e., as one-sixth of the entire population, there ought to be in average attendance at all schools in the country 742,757 children. Of course a very considerable number of pupils attend primary schools not in connexion Schoolhouses. Teaching with this Board, and also intermediate or secondary schools. Making due allowance, however, for such children, the number in average attendance at our schools falls far short of the number that the schoolgoing population would seem to warrant. We are pleased, however, to be able to report an improvement in this respect, as the number in average attendance which in 1900 was 478,224, was, in 1901, 482,031, an increase of 3,807. We expect a further increase in the average attendance of pupils in view of the efforts made by school managers to provide increased and better school accommodation, while from the general desire on the part of managers and teachers to understand the principles and to attain the objects of the new programme, we feel assured that the interest of the pupils in their school work is increasing, and that school life is becoming brighter and more attractive. The application of the compulsory attendance provisions of the Irish Education Act, 1892, by County Councils to rural districts will also, it is hoped, result in an increase in the number of pupils on the rolls and in average daily attendance. The school-houses, generally are suitable for their purposes, but there are still over 5 per cent. of them which would require to be entirely re-constructed. W'e gave liberal grants to managers during the year for building new schools and improving old ones, and we have been, as your Excellency is aware, in correspondence with the Lords of His Majesty's Treasury with a view of obtaining special facilities for making grants for school-houses in poor localities where sufficient local aid is not forthcoming. The personnel of our Teaching Staffs is steadily improving from year to year. Fifty-three per cent. of the teachers are now trained, and the numbers seeking admission to the Training Colleges are in excess of the vacancies in these institutions. Under the operation of the new system of promotion and of increments of salary, the teachers have a direct incentive to the highest efficiency, and it will be our endeavour to select for promotion to the higher Grades and to Sub-Inspectorships of schools those who have proved their excellence as teachers, whether their service has been long or short. Earnest and capable teachers have thus a career thrown open to them which was not possible under the old system. The services of the new class of teachers, known as Manual Instructresses, who combine the functions of teachers of Needlework, Kindergarten, and Manual Instruction, have been widely appreciated. We sanctioned grants of salary to seventy-seven Manual Instructresses during the year ended 31st December, 1901. We anticipate the best results from the employment of this class of teachers. |