Dalintober (Miss Campbell's).-Inspected 28th February, 1849. 1 and 2. Good. Dorward's, Montrose.-Inspected 15th June, 1849. Candidates for apprenticeship un- Dalry, Parochial.-Inspected 19th June, 1849. 1. Good. 2. Good. 3. Simultaneous, cient. Blair Mains-Inspected 20th June, 1849. 1. Good. 2. Good. 3. Simultaneous, Dalry, Female Industry-Inspected 21st June, 1849. 1 and 2. Good. 3. Simul- Dalry, Kirsland Barony.-Inspected 21st June, 1849. 1 and 2. Good. 3. Simulta- Beith, Parochial, Boys'-Inspected 22nd June, 1849. 1 and 2. Excellent. 3. Simultaneous, monitorial, individual, 5. Highly approved of. Books and apparatus sufficient; desks and furniture good. Beith, Parochial, Girls'.-1 and 2. Fair. and several drawn by the mistress herself; There is only one map, that of Scotland, desks and furniture excellent. Edinburgh, Normal.-Inspected 25th June, 1949. No Report. Kirkaldy, Burgh.-Inspected 5th July, 1849. 1 and 2. Excellent. 3. Simultaneous, Cupar, Madras School, Boys'-Inspected 6th July, 1849. 1 and 2. Good. 3. Simul- Newton-on-Ayr.-Inspected 10th July, 1849.-1, 2, and 3. Good. 5. He is a very com- Dreghorn Crossroads.-Inspected 11th July, 1849. leand 2. Excellent. 3. Simulta- Fullarton.- Inspected 11th July, 1849. 1 and 2. Excellent. 3. Good. 5. Master Brisbane, Endowed.-Inspected 13th July, 1849. 1. Good. 2. Very good. 3. Simul- Currie, Endowed.-Inspected 17th July, 1849. 1. Satisfactory. 2. Fair. 3. SimulTolerably supply of books; a com Tabulated Reports on Sessional Schools in Scotland inspected by John Gordon, Esq.-continued. Number of Children learning Number of Children learning Number of Children No. of Children Arithmetic as far as Writing on Paper. Slates. Easy Narratives. Monosyllables. Letters and SCHOOL. . 330 25 25 25 82 25 30 133 127 115 67 16 14 08 17 10 30 4 Glasgow (Gorbal's). Schools in Scotland. not in connexion with the Established Church -General Report for 1848-49, by JOHN GIBSON, Esq., one of Her Majesty's Inspectors of Schools. MY LORDS, Edinburgh, December 1849. SINCE my appointment in 1848, a comparatively small portion of my time has been devoted to the work of inspection. The arrangements made by your Lordships, and detailed in the letter addressed to my colleague and me by your Lordships' Secretary, rendered it necessary to spend several months in the examination of candidates for Certificates of Merit, and in work directly connected with these examinations, including the preparation of the examination papers, the review of the written answers of the candidates, and the reporting on them to your Lordships. The interest excited by your Lordships' Minutes, and the ignorance prevalent, especially in the remoter parts of Scotland, in regard to their precise nature and objects, entailed upon me a vast amount of correspondence, attention to which occupied no small share of my time, so that I have been enabled to give not more than a few months to inspection. This inspection, too, has been conducted in circumstances and for objects singularly interesting and important indeed, but ill fitted for enabling me to report upon the schools with such minuteness of statistical detail as is desirable and necessary, and as I shall be able in future very easily to give. I propose, in the following brief Report, to submit to your Lordships a statement describing the objects, nature, and chief results of the work of inspection in which I have been occupied; the general views and principles by which I was regulated in drawing the Examination Papers; the spirit and manner in which the written answers were reviewed by me, and then reported upon to your Lordships; and the impressions made upon my own mind by the novel and animating spectacle of so many of the teachers of our country assembled, under the auspices of your Lordships, for the purpose of proving their qualifications for the high work to which they have devoted themselves. 1. Inspection.-I have examined, with more or less minuteness, more than 100 schools. These schools were visited, specially, for the selection and examination of candidates for apprenticeship as pupil teachers. The specific object of my visit regulated to a great extent the nature of the examination. That object was three-fold: First, to discover among the children in attendance those who by attainment, talent, disposition, and general charac VOL. II. 2 T |