The Commissioners desire it to be distinctly understood that they do not hold themselves responsible for the opinions expressed in these Reports, nor do they feel called upon to adopt any suggestions they may contain.

I.-General Report by Chief Inspector Mr. E. DOWNING.

GENTLEMEN,

I beg to submit, through you, to the Commissioners my first report as Chief Inspector, which office I have held since 1st April, 1900.

This report refers to the year ended 31st December, 1900, a period of far-reaching reform and of transition in the system of National Education. No change has been made in the fundamental principle of "affording combined literary and moral, and separate religious instruction, to children of all persuasions, as far as possible, in the same school," nor in the plan of managerial government; but in all other respects the system has undergone numerous radical changes, which will be referred to in due course.

My division may be roughly described as the southern half of Ireland; or, more definitely, as comprising the former head inspectors' circuits, of which South Dublin, Cork, and Galway were the official

centres.

Reports on
the State of
National
Education.

Mr. E. Downing.

dation.

Within this area schools are sufficient in number, and are, on the Supply of whole, conveniently distributed. There are no complaints of want school of schools within reasonable distance of any children; but the accom- accommomodation afforded by the houses and premises is still, in a large number of instances, unsatisfactory. Cabins of the rudest type are still to be met with as the habitations of National schools, and, notwithstanding the very laudable efforts of many managers and the expenditure of large sums from the public funds, there remain numerous cases of uncomfortable school-houses and of unsanitary or inadequate premises.

Serious faults have been found with the plans of some school-houses recently erected with State aid, and with the character of the furniture supplied to them. The desks supplied in some instances are unsuitable, being too long, and being of the same pattern and same height, whether intended for Sixth Standard pupils or for Infants. It, therefore, seems clearly imperative that, in future, all building plans and designs for furniture should, before adoption, be submitted to the scrutiny of an educational expert. The plans of the Board of Works need a total revision, in view of the requirements of the revised programme. The vested school-houses, even those vested in the Commissioners, built in the early years of the National Board, are now very antiquated and unsatisfactory. Those more recently built will, I fear, prove soon out-of-date, if they are not so already. An immediate revision of the plans is therefore necessary, so that future buildings may be more in accordance with modern notions. If seating accommodation for all pupils is to be provided, a very general enlargement of the school buildings will be necessary.

The premises vested in local trustees deteriorate very fast, as a rule, for want of proper attention. Some means of providing funds for

B

Reports on

the State of National Education.

Mr. E. Downing. School accommodation.

their timely repair should be devised. It is bad economy to spend public funds on buildings without providing effectively for their preservation.

In localities where a supply of peat is not convenient, complaints are frequently made of the discomfort of the school-rooms in winter for want of proper heating. In several districts peat fuel is becoming very scarce.

The following extracts from General Reports for the year 1900 express the views of the Senior Inspectors of my division on this question of supply of school accommodation.

Mr. STRONGE:

Efforts are being made throughout the whole circuit to provide more comfortable and suitable houses.

If every child is to be provided with a seat, as is the case in Great Britain and Germany, much larger school buildings will be required. I hope the new school buildings will be constructed with more taste and more regard had to the arrangement of the school-rooms.

It is very desirable that in the case of new buildings, a competent expert in all school work should be consulted before sanction is given to a proposed plan of building and furnishing.

"The desks supplied to vested school-houses are very inconvenient in construction, especially for girls, and thereby involve waste of time and want of precision and simultaneity of movement. If they have to be moved, as desks often have, it is a toil and trouble to the movers, and injurious to the desks, as their very weight causes those strains and jars which precede ricketiness and lead to a final break up. Dual desks of different heights, according to the ages of the children, are in use in nearly all the Convent schools. They are somewhat more expensive than the ordinary desks, but they are infinitely more convenient, and, in my opinion, the Commissioners should not permit any other form of desks to be supplied to vested schools.

"In my special reports upon vested schools, I have very frequently --indeed, generally-to call attention to the state of the grounds and the neglected appearance of the buildings."

Dr. ALEXANDER :—

"At the present rate of progress, many years must elapse before adequate and suitable accommodation will have been provided in all the localities in which it is needed.

While much has been done to provide proper accommodation, it is still true that in a considerable number of cases the work of instruction has to be carried on in houses that are badly in need of structural improvement, or are totally unsuitable from every point of view.

"

Speaking generally, I cannot report any material improvements in the way in which the school-rooms and premises are kept. Evidences of neatness and taste are too rarely observable."

Mr. MCCLINTOCK :

"

So far as I have had an opportunity of judging, the schools appear to be properly distributed to meet the educational wants of the people, and the houses are, except in two or three cases, large enough to give ample accommodation to the children in attendance. are some instances of double schools, boys and girls separately, where

There

the State of

a single mixed school would be more effective. The attendance, I Reports on dare say, was at first sufficient to justify their recognition, but a National diminishing population and the increasing necessity for child labour Education. at home have brought about a condition of things in which one efficient school would do more work than two small ones.

Mr. E.

modation.

“The general condition of the houses may be described as fair. In Downing. about twenty cases new houses will be required in this district in the School accomnear future to supersede buildings which are more or less unsuitable. "The entire absence of a playground is a rather common defect. Even the recreation of the children should be given an educational trend by means of games, &c., under the supervision of the teacher, but this cannot be effectively done when the half hour has to be spent on the adjacent highway, lane, or graveyard. The offices are kept. fairly clean, but are not so well attended to as the houses in the matter of repairs. They are often erected too close to the schoolroom. There are eleven cases in which these conveniences have not been provided."

Mr. SMITH:

"The portion of the City of Cork south of the Lee needs additional accommodation for boys. Douglas-street Monastery National School is filled to its utmost capacity, and although there is abundant space in the Model schools, it is not taken advantage of, for reasons which need no mention here. Besides, this portion of the city is rapidly increasing, owing to the erection of new buildings, and this renders the want increasingly urgent. The main difficulty against building is the unreasonably high price asked for any suitable site. In the rural portions of the district the accommodation is, as a rule, more than sufficient, for the tide of emigration and its consequent decrease of population is making itself felt in the school-rooms.

In point of accommodation all save a few schools are satisfactory; but with respect to heating and comfort, a large number must be classed as unsatisfactory. In many of the latter the heating arrangements are insufficient, a small fireplace being altogether inadequate for the proper heating of a large room; but in most cases the insufficiency arises from want of an adequate supply of fuel and of suitable means for the provision thereof, no local funds other than subscriptions by the pupils being available. This subscription list is usually managed by the principal teacher without the intervention of the manager, and is not, in my opinion, a satisfactory way of coping with the difficulty, as the great number of cold, cheerless school-rooms proves."

Mr. HOGAN:

"The condition of the school buildings is, on the whole, satisfactory. In twelve cases new buildings are urgently needed in this district, but I see no immediate prospect of having these needs supplied.

"

In nearly twenty cases of small separate schools for boys and girls, amalgamation is to be desired."

Mr. DALTON:

"There are no local organisations, no funds, and consequently no regular arrangements for the periodical and timely renovation of the large majority of the school-houses of the district.

Reports on the State of National Education.

Mr. E. Downing.

The school-houses vested in the Commissioners are repaired at reasonable intervals by the Board of Works. The newer of the schoolhouses vested in local trustees look fresh and well, but the older of them do not differ in appearance from the general run of non-vested houses. Some of the buildings vested in trustees are among the oldest school-houses in the district, and two or three of them are among the School accom- shabbiest and most dilapidated. A few of the non-vested buildings are little better than hovels, and many of them, even the more solidly built ones, are unceiled, barn-like structures, bare-looking, uncomely, and uncomfortable. We are gradually replacing the worst of the non-vested houses by new vested buildings. Two of these new buildings have been completed during my time here, and three or four others are about being commenced.

modation.

Attendance of pupils.

"No regular provision is made for the heating of the schools during the winter season. I was surprised and pained during the past three months to witness the total disregard of the most elementary claims of the health and comfort of the children that prevails in this respect. During the month of October last I visited over sixty schools of the district. Everyone knows that the weather throughout the month was exceptionally wet and inclement; yet in the schools visited incidentally, I came only on three which had got fires."

Mr. CRAIG :

The school-rooms are kept fairly clean and neat, and ventilation is, as a rule, attended to, but in the winter they are not sufficiently heated. There are no regular funds for purposes of repairs, &c., and very few of the schools present an attractive outside appearance, with premises suitably enclosed, grounds nicely kept, and out-offices carefully looked after."

Attendance of Pupils.

The attendance of pupils has seriously declined during the year, and a considerable number of assistants had consequently to retire. The effect of epidemics may have been slightly above average, but the chief reason of the decline must be sought for, I fear, in the diminution of the population of the country. Under the Results system, the requirement of 100 attendances to qualify for examination afforded a considerable stimulus to both teachers and pupils. The withdrawal of this stimulus has, no doubt, contributed to the decline of attendance; but to what extent it is not, as yet, possible to estimate. As a set-off to this drawback, every possible effort should be made to render the inferior schools more comfortable and attractive.

In point of regularity of attendance, there is no material improvement to record, notwithstanding that the Compulsory Attendance clauses of the Act of 1892 have been put in force in several places during the year.

Under this head I quote the following passages from the General Reports of the Senior Inspectors:

Mr. DEWAR: -
--

The attendance of pupils is irregular and cannot be deemed satisfactory. In some of the towns the Compulsory Act is in force, and helps to lessen the evils of irregular attendance, but in other portions of the circuit the continuous wail is heard that the efforts of the

teacher are paralysed by irregular attenders. Their presence upsets Reports on the progressive nature of class work, and dulls the energy and lessens the State of the interest of the pupils who attend regularly and desire to improve." Education.

Dr. SKEFFINGTON :

National

Mr. E.

Downing.

"In New Ross the Compulsory Attendance Act has recently been Attendance of put in force, and so far with good effect, and in this case it has been Pupils. extended to a rural area. Several cases of over-grown pupils in elementary classes show the need there was for compulsion."

Mr. MCCLINTOCK :

'Managers and teachers complain of the irregularity of the attendance of the pupils. This is in part due, no doubt, to the remissness of parents, but the main cause, at least in rural districts, is the increasing difficulty of procuring farm labourers. Small farmers

cannot afford to pay the high wages now demanded, many young men and women emigrate every year, and the owner of a few arable acres cannot be blamed for getting as much help as he requires from his school-going children, particularly at the busiest seasons. The alternative would to him probably mean insolvency. The establishment of creameries has not tended to improve either regularity or punctuality of attendance.

"The Compulsory Attendance Act was put in force in the town of Kilkenny within the past twelve months for the first time, but it is impossible to give an approximate estimate of its effect, because diphtheria has been prevalent in the city for several months, and has interfered to a large extent with the schools. The Model school was closed for a considerable period, and seven other schools for some weeks. This Act is not in force in any other town in this district."

Mr. W. A. BROWN:

"It is surprising to what a small extent ordinary wet weather deters even little children from attending school. The perseverance of such pupils, badly clad as they often are, should be a powerful appeal for punctuality on the teachers' part, so that the lighting of fires and other arrangements for their comfort might be completed before the arrival of the earliest of the weather-beaten little travellers. The pupils and I arrived more than once last year too soon forthe teacher."

Mr. CRAIG: :

"The greatest obstacle to progress is irregularity of attendance. This is not only the case where there is no compulsion, but even in those places where the Compulsory Education Act is at present in force. In Queenstown, the work of compulsion has been carried on since 1894. I extract the following statistics from the returns of Queenstown Convent School-one which affords an excellent education to its pupils and should, therefore, have a regular attendance. The figures are taken for 1893, the last year prior to the introduction of compulsion; for the year 1894, the first of compulsion, and for the year ended 31st December, 1900.