THE

SIXTY-THIRD REPORT

OF THE

COMMISSIONERS OF NATIONAL EDUCATION
IN IRELAND,

FOR THE YEAR 1896-7.

ΤΟ

HIS EXCELLENCY GEORGE HENRY EARL CADOGAN, K.G.,

LORD LIEUTENANT-GENERAL AND GENERAL GOVERNOR OF IRELAND.

May it please your Excellency,

for the

and the

ture,

WE, the Commissioners of National Education in Ireland, Periods submit to Your Excellency this our Sixty-third Report. In this Statistica Report all the statistics connected with the number of schools, Expendi number of pupils on the Rolls, and the average daily attendance, refer to the year ended 31st December, 1896, and all statements connected with the expenditure of the public grants refer to the year ended 31st March, 1897.

School-houses and Teachers' Residences.

1. On the 31st December, 1896, there were 9,083 Schools on our Roll, of which 8,606 were in operation.

2 Of the total number on our Roll, 3,700 were Vested Schools, Vested classified as follows:

Our grant towards the erection of Vested Schools, whether Vested in Trustees or Vested in the Commissioners, is two-thirds of the estimated cost.

schools.

Schools.

3. The remainder, 5,383, were Non-Vested Schools, which are Non-Vested erected from funds locally provided, or, in a few instances, from loans available under the Act of 1884, 47 & 48 Vic., cap. 22. The loans are repayable at 5 per cent. per annum (principal and interest included) in 35 years.

new

4. The number of applications for grants to new schools con- Number of sidered in the year 1896 was 128. In 121 cases we gave the required Grants to assistance, either as grants for building new premises, or as grants schools in aid of the maintenance of Schools previously established but (a.) Buildnot in connexion with the Board. The remaining 7 applications inge.

(b) Salaries

were rejected. Of the 121 Schools added to our list during the year 1896, the number in each Province, and the nature of the Aid granted, were as follows:

Amount of
Grants.

Amount of
Loans.

The erection of Vested school-houses, for which we make building grants, is carried out under the direction of the Board of Works. At the beginning of the year the amount for which that Board was liable in respect to grants already made by us was £59,637. In addition to this amount, we had made grants amounting to £26,417, which had not up to the 31st March, 1896, been ready for notification to the Board of Works. Parliamentary Vote for the year to meet the cost of the new school-houses was £40,000.

The

During the year we received a number of applications for such grants representing, in the total, a sum largely in excess of what the Parliamentary Vote would warrant us in sanctioning. Accordingly it was necessary to limit our grants; and having regard to the large liabilities in previous years, the total of the new grants we felt warranted in making in 1896-7 was £30,347. During the year we cancelled grants to the amount of £6,734, in cases in which the Managers failed to proceed with the works. The liabilities on the part of the Board of Works on 31st March, 1897, amounted to £48,198; and there were also grants made by us prior to that date, but not ready for notification to Board of Works, amounting to £21,469.

Of the £30,347 above referred to as granted by us during the year ended 31st March, 1897, £25,295 was in aid of the erection of new vested schoolhouses which will afford adequate school accommodation for 10,063 children; and £2,247 was for the purpose of providing additional accommodation, either by the enlargement of existing rooms, or by the addition of new classrooms, whereby further accommodation for 1,022 pupils will be provided. The balance, £2,805, was for such purposes as new floors, furniture, &c.

The total amount actually paid within the year by the Board

of Works on our behalf was £40,000.

We also forwarded to the Board of Works applications for

loans to the amount of £1,069 towards the erection of new NonVested school-houses, and £330 towards enlarging or otherwise improving existing Non-Vested school-houses.

towards

According to the Returns furnished by the School Managers Local aid the amount subscribed in the year 1896 from local sources building and towards the erection of new buildings, additions to school premises, repairing &c., was £34,619; and similarly for repairs, improvements of houses. house and furniture, and other local expenditure, the amount was £34,295. Total, £68,914.

school

5. During the year we approved of loans in 43 cases to Residences. provide Teachers' Residences, and in 2 cases to improve existing Residences. The total amount of the loans sanctioned was £10,430.

Since the year 1875, when the Residences Act came into force, 1,220 applications for loans, and 72 applications for grants, as dis tinct from loans, to provide Residences for Teachers, have been approved by us.

We entered into communication with the Irish Government and the Board of Works with a view to removing, where legally feasible, certain restrictions in regard to the use and occupancy of the residences (built by loan or grant), so as to enable Managers under certain contingencies to arrange for their occupancy by others than the Principal Teachers of the particular schools concerned.*

houses and

The number of free residences for Teachers of National SchoolSchools, as returned by the Managers, is 1,300. (This excludes Teachers Convent, Monastery, Model, and Workhouse Schools.)

Residences.

6. As regards the Vested schools, especially those Vested in Condition our Board, and kept in repair by the Board of Works, the of premises, adequacy and suitableness of their sites, their sanitary arrangements, and their general fitting up for school purposes, afford grounds for satisfaction.

The Non-Vested Schools are, in large proportion, held in excellent houses, and on suitable sites, but many of those schoolhouses are of an unsatisfactory character. A large per-centage of our teachers also are as yet unprovided with suitable residences.

of sites.

The Local Managers are making due efforts to remedy these Compulsory deficiencies, and in view of the powers now available under the acquisition Acts of 1892 and 1893, for the compulsory acquisition of sites for Schools and Residences, we hope that improvement in both respects will be perceptible in the near future.

In 1896, 4 applications were made to us to authorise the compulsory purchase of sites for Schools, and 2 applications for authority to purchase sites for residences. In three of these cases sites were subsequently acquired by agreement; in two cases Trustees were authorised to compulsorily acquire sites, and one case is under consideration.

* Since the close of the year the proposed arrangements have received Treasury sanction.

Since the Act of 1892, as amended, came into operation, we gave the required authorisation in 25 cases to acquire sites compulsorily, and we refused the authorisation in one case.

Schools in Operation: Attendance.

Schools in 7. On the 31st of December, 1896, we had 8,606 schools in Operation. operation. During the year, 168 schools were brought into operation-viz., 117 Vested in the Commissioners or in Trustees, and 51 Non-Vested; while 119 schools were placed on the Suspended List, or removed from the Roll of National Schools; thus giving a net increase of 49 schools in operation for the year 1896.

Space

accommodation

In the schools in operation on the 31st December, 1896, the accommodation afforded was sufficient for 855,889 pupils, allowing provided, eight square feet for each pupil.

schools.

Inoperative S. Of the schools on our Roll, 477 were not in operation in 1896 -299 were not completely built-167 were on the "Suspended List," chiefly owing to failure to maintain a sufficient attendance of pupils, and 11 Model School departments were amalgamated with the adjoining departments.

Free sc..ools.

Average

9. From the returns we have received, it appears that 8,178 schools were absolutely free from school fees in 1896. In 407 schools "excess average fees," authorised under the Act of 1892, were charged to pupils over three and under fifteen years of age.

10. (a.) The average number of pupils on the Rolls for the year No.on Rolls, ended 31st December, 1896, was 815,248, showing a decrease, as compared with the previous year, of 10,798.

Average daily

(b.) The average daily attendance of pupils for the year ended attendance 31st December, 1896, was 534,957, of whom 263,020 were boys. (all ages). This was an increase of 15,442 in the total average daily attendance as compared with 1895.

Proportion of attend

ance to

(c.) The per-centage of the average daily attendance of pupils for the year to the average number on the Rolls was 656. This No.on Rolls. is the highest proportion of actual to possible attendance as yet reached.

Average

11. (a.) The number of pupils over three and under fifteen years of daily attendance age, the limits of age* defined in the Act of 1892, sec. 18, sub-sec. (ages 15 (5), in average daily attendance in 1896, was 518,153. The aver and above). age attendance of those who were fifteen and above was 16,804.

3 to

It is only for pupils within those ages that the capitation grant provided by the Act is paid. This number (518,153) includes 4,293 attending Poor Law Union National Schools, 202 attending Evening National Schools, and 2,013 attending Industrial Schools (under the Act), being a total of 6,508, which, being deducted from the gross number, leaves 611,645 for which the capitation grant provided by the Act is payable.