fied national teachers; (3) persons who after a five years' course as monitors have obtained satisfactory certificates. No person can secure a position under the board without a medical certificate showing sound health. The minimum age for appointment is 18 years and the maximum 35 years. Clergymen are not recognized as teachers by the board. All teachers are obliged to present themselves at the annual examinations which are held in their respective districts each year in the month of July. Teachers failing in this obligation can not continue to draw their salaries. Salaries are graded by class. The classification and average salaries of principal teachers in 1890 were as follows:

General average: Men, $442.25; women, $373.75.

The average salary for assistant teachers the same year was, for men, $267.25; for women, $216.

The salaries are composed in part of a fixed amount allowed by the commissioners to each class of teachers, and generally equal to one-half the whole salary. An additional sum is allowed by the board, determined in each case by the results of examinations and the amount of local contributions. Teachers of model schools are provided with full residence, as are also about one-tenth of the teachers of the ordinary national schools. The teachers of convent schools are allowed their choice between the fixed salaries and a grant (rated at 12s. or 10s.) per capita of average attendance. As they receive no money from local sources, their incomes are much less than those of the teachers in the national schools-a discrimination which has long been a cause of disturbance. At the best, the Irish teacher is not so well paid as the English teacher, owing, however, entirely to the meager contributions from local sources. The matter is constantly urged upon the attention of Parliament by Irish members.

Of the total income of the teaching staff for the year ending March 31, 1891, 76.3 per cent was derived from the Government. Since 1879 the Irish teachers have had the benefit of a pension fund, which is distributed upon a varying scale, the maximum number of teachers who may be borne upon the pension roll being 10,700.

Duties. The duties of teachers in national schools are minutely detailed in official instructions, copies of which must be kept in the school room. Special stress is placed upon the keeping of registers, report books, and class rolls.

It would appear that Irish teachers are subject to all the evils arising

from dual control. They depend directly upon local managers for their appointment, tenure, and extra compensation. At the same time, the major portion of their salaries and all claims thereto depend upon their fulfilling the requirements of the board. The situation explains their general discontent. It must be stated, however, that the high efficiency of the great body of the teachers is beyond question.

TRAINING COLLEGES.

Control and support.-The necessity of special training for teachers was recognized at the very beginning of the commissioners' administration, and a normal school or training college was established by them for this purpose at Dublin (Marlborough Street Training College) and opened for students in 1838. Only young women were admitted at first, but a department for men was added in 1842. The model schools which had been previously established at Dublin became practice schools for the college. In addition to the Marlborough Street Training College, which is under the direct control of the commissioners, three denominational colleges have been established, viz, the Church of Ireland Training College for both sexes and two Roman Catholic training colleges, St. Patrick's (Drumcondra) for men, and Our Lady of Mercy Training College (Dublin) for women. These are under inspection and share in the government grant.

All of the colleges have boarding departments; students who obtain. Queen's scholarships are provided with free board and tuition.

Prior to 1890 the government grant furnished the entire support of the official college, while the denominational colleges received only a portion of their support from this source. Dissatisfaction with this inequality led to a change of basis in the year specified. Under present arrangements the government allows fixed grants, as follows: (a) In all the colleges (Marlborough Street included) £50 a year for men students and £35 a year for women; (b) in addition, a diploma bonus of £10 for men and £7 for women for each year of training, on the award of the diploma for training, after a probationary service of two years in the actual work of teaching. If the new grants yield a surplus upon the certified expenditure, such surplus may be applied to scholarships, prizes, the purchase of apparatus and educational appliances, or any other suitable purposes approved by the commissioners of national education. (Report 1890, pp. 24, 25).

The pupils in respect to whom these grants are made must pass successfully the inspectors' examinations, which are held annually at the respective schools. The examinations for women differ somewhat from those for men, the requirements in mathematics and science being less, and needlework, cutting garments, and kindergarten exercises being added.

Statistics. The number of pupils in training in whom 363 completed their course during the year.

1890 was 514, of Of these, 172 had

entered for a one-year's course and 191 for the complete course of two years. The total grant to the colleges for the year was £139,146 78. ($676,251).

Training of pupil teachers.-The regulations as to the training of pupil teachers by their respective head teachers are very explicit. Pupil teachers employed in the model schools really receive a superior order of professional training.

Training by organizing teachers.-The commissioners appoint certain teachers, whose office it is to undertake the organization of large and important schools and to prepare the teaching staff of such schools for the better discharge of their duties. From the detailed instructions issued for the staff of organizers, it appears that their work is similar to that carried on in our own teachers' institutes. They give lectures upon school organization, methods of instruction, discipline, school sanitation, etc. As they are located at schools actually in progress, they are able to supplement their lectures by practical applications and by criticisms of the work of the ordinary teachers. Thus they may be said to combine institute instruction with the exercises of practice schools. No recent report upon this feature of the system is at hand.

WORK OF SCHOOLS.

Course of study.-The course of study in the Irish schools, as in those of England and Scotland, comprises obligatory and optional branches. The former, which are arranged in a graded course covering six years or classes, include reading, spelling, writing, and arithmetic in all classes; grammar, geography in classes III-VI; bookkeeping, classes V-VI; needlework for girls, classes II-VI; and agriculture for boys, classes IV-VI. Vocal music and drawing are optional class subjects. Other optional branches which may be taken by pupils in different classes are kindergarden exercises in the infant, or first, class; geometry, algebra, mensuration, trigonometry, handicraft (for boys); sewing machine, domestic economy, cookery, dairying, management of poultry (for girls), and hygiene; also the physical sciences, navigation, classics, French, German, Irish, and even instrumental music.1

Examinations.-A portion of the Government grant is allowed upon a scale of payments graded for each class and subject, at a certain rate per capita of passes at the annual examination. No child can be pre

1 Great care is exercised to prevent the interruption of the secular programme by religious exercises. It is especially ordered that religious instruction must be so arranged, (a) that each school shall be open to children of all communions for combined literary and moral instruction; (b) that, in respect of religious instruction, due regard be had to parental right and authority, and accordingly that no child shall receive or be present at any religious instruction of which his parents or guardians disapprove; and (c) that the time for giving religious instruction be so fixed that no child shall be thereby in effect excluded, directly or indirectly, from the other advantages which the school affords. (Official Rules and Regulations, 1887, p. 8.)

sented for examination who does not make at least one attendance' in the last fortnight of the month preceding the inspector's examination. The system of payment upon results seems to have met with less opposition in Ireland than in England or Scotland, probably because only a small portion of the grant has been thus allotted.

The following statistics show the status of S,175 schools examined in 1890 with respect to attendance, classification of pupils, and passes: The number of pupils who were examined on the day of inspection was, boys, 216,092; girls, 277,090, or a total of 543,182.

Of the total number of pupils examined in infants' grade (114,591) 27,449, about 24 per cent, were taught by kindergarten methods.

The report shows that at least one-fifth of the pupils presented for examination had pursued extra optional subjects. Music led the list with 70,315; drawing followed with 45,911; algebra, 12,337. Altogether pupils were presented in 27 extra subjects. Greek and Latin both appear in the list, the former with 10 pupils, the latter with 142.

Course of study in training colleges.-The course of study for the training colleges includes all the subjects enumerated for the elementary schools together with the theory and practice of teaching. Various branches of industrial training are included in the programmes, among which, as also in the actual application of the programmes, agriculture holds the chief place.

MISCELLANEOUS PROVISIONS.

Supply of text-books.-The sanction of the commissioners, as has been noted, was necessary for all text-books used in the schools. At first, owing to the lack of suitable books, they were obliged to publish their own; this necessity having passed away, it became evident that supplies could not be obtained so readily and cheaply from any other source, and consequently the books in use, whether their own publications or those of private authors, are sold by the commissioners and delivered to the pupils at cost price. The annual expenditure for books and other requisites furnished is about $25,000 more than the receipts from sales. Average attendance required and length of school year.-As a rule, in

The roll is made up each day. A child who is excused before the literary exercises of the day are completed is not counted in making up the attendance.

order that a school should be recognized by the commissioners it must maintain an average daily attendance1 of 30 pupils. Special provisions are made, however, for the effects of epidemics, exceptionally severe weather, etc. A school year must be at least 200 days, and must offer at least four hours' secular instruction daily (including, if necessary, a playtime of half an a hour) for five days in the week.

Arrangements are made for half-time attendance of factory children, who may be presented for examination and secure payments upon a varying record of attendance, of which the maximum is either 135 days of three hours each or 66 days of six hours each.

Provisions for industrial training.-In their fourth report (1837) the commissioners discussed plans for industrial education and for fostering schools of industry. They proposed the immediate establishment of such a school in the vicinity of Dublin, to be equipped with shops and farm. In their report for the next year they announced as an indispensable condition for aid toward a school of industry, that a work room "shall be annexed to it if it be situated in a city or town, and if it be a country or rural school that a certain quantity of land shall be provided for garden culture. They will consider schools for girls as of the class of elementary schools, but they will require that instruction. be there given in sewing, knitting, and other works suited to females." In the following report (1839) they notice the establishment of their first model farm. This feature of their work has been steadily developed and they have now two agricultural schools, i. e., the Albert Model Agricultural School, Glasnevin, near Dublin, and the Munster Model Agricultural and Dairy National School. The commissioners report in 1890 also 47 school farms in connection with ordinary national schools, and 29 school gardens; from the former 701 students and from the latter 437 were presented for examination. The Glasnevin school serves as an experimental farm for the Marlborough Street Training College; a dairy school is maintained in connection therewith, another at Cork, and departments for dairy instruction at most of the farms.

An experiment in itinerant dairy instruction made in the neighborhood of Dungannon in 1888 has proved sufficiently successful to warrant an extension of the work. Instruction in the theory of agriculture is compulsory in all rural schools for boys in the fourth, fifth, and sixth classes and optional for girls. The commissioners also report that instruction in handicraft has been recently added to the extra branches upon which the boys of the higher classes of the national schools may be examined. Arrangements for classes in spinning, weaving, and other cottage industries are in progress, the Government having sanctioned result fees for proficiency in these arts.

Needlework and knitting have become a part of the course in all

1 The average daily attendance is found by dividing the total number of complete attendances by the number of regular school days.

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