with them their old habit.

Then under the results system a pass in Appendix D. reading and any other literary subject rendered their removal to a higher Proficiency class necessary, and so they passed from class to class without any solid of Pupils. knowledge of this important subject, and unfit to learn the rules pre- Dr. Brown.

scribed for their classes. The addition and subtraction tables are now generally taught, and when those pupils who are now well taught in the lower classes reach the higher, I have no doubt they will exhibit more creditable proficiency than their seniors whom I examined during the past year.

Penmanship. The proficiency in penmanship is almost without exception very creditable. Great attention is now paid to the writing of the junior classes, and in these classes especially there is great improvement. As in other cases I give the results of my examinations in a tabular form :-

The most prominent defects which I found were allowing the junior classes to transcribe from reading books in small free hand, almost illegible, instead of the large copy-hand which they were accustomed to write in copy-books; and not providing ruled slates for beginners.

Writing from Dictation.-The dictation exercises are neatly written, but, as in oral spelling, the mistakes are very numerous. Owing probably to peculiarity of accent the children do not distinguish between the sounds of the letters e and i, and where the consonants th occur, the h is very frequently omitted. Fully half the errors in spelling come under these two heads. The numbers passed are about 70 per cent. of the numbers examined.

Grammar.—The answering of the children in third class was defective; and this was to be expected, as grammar was not in their results programme till this year, and in many cases the examination came off before the teachers had time to prepare their pupils in this subject. In the higher classes the proficiency was very fair, and in almost every case I applied the double test of written and oral examination. The following table exhibits the results:

Geography.—The proficiency in geography is much below what might

be reasonably expected, especially in the higher classes. Ireland is the only country on which the general answering was good.

The numbers examined in the several classes were the same as in grammar. The following are the results ::

Number passed,

Per-centage of passes,

Class.

Agricultural Class Book.-The Agricultural Class Book is now taught in almost all the male schools, town and rural; and is calculated to diffuse much valuable information where it is most needed. The subject is new

Appendix D. in the schools of this district, and the knowledge of it very rudimentary, Proficiency but a beginning has been made, and each succeeding year is likely to of Pupils. show improvement. Excluding the pupils of the Munster Model Agricultural School, but 145 boys passed.

Dr. Brown.

Needlework.-Plain sewing and knitting are well taught, and fancy work receives sufficient attention, but "cutting out" appears to be rather neglected.

Attendance

and School

fees.

Mr.

II.-General Observations as to the Condition of the
Schools.

So

District 1, Letterkenny; Mr. Macaulay.-The majority of the schools Macaulay. in this district are exceptionally circumstanced, so far as attendance is regarded. For several months of the year, owing to various causes, many of the schools are almost empty, and in the winter months they are inconveniently crowded. The ordinary teaching staff is actually unable to keep in order or under proper discipline those rude, untrained crowds, much less to give them the requisite amount of instruction. many evils arise from this state of things, that whoever would suggest a practical remedy should be regarded as a great educational benefactor. The rate of wages and the expense of living have so enormously increased, that boys and girls who, ten or fifteen years ago, would have been kept at school, for want of other employment, are now sent out to earn, during the spring, summer, and harvest months. If the people are to be educated, education must be made compulsory under a certain age, or else the children must be brought out at an earlier age, and to make the latter course practicable, the schools must be increased, so that the younger pupils may be able to reach them. In a sanitary point of view this crowding of the schools is objectionable and injurious. The ventilation of the schools is not attended to with sufficient care; and it is lamentable to observe that when contagious or infectious diseases appear in a locality, they are frequently propagated by the pestilential air of the school-room. So indifferent to the results are both parents and teachers, it is no uncommon thing to find in a densely-crowded room pupils who had but recently recovered from fever or scarlatina.

As regards the cleanliness of the schools and premises, and especially the personal cleanliness of the pupils, much remains to be done. Very often teachers, when remonstrated with on the latter point, urge that, if they reprimand the pupils for " filthy hands or feet," "uncombed hair," or "unwashed faces," the children will be kept at home, as such remarks offend the susceptibilities of the parents who, like the Spartans, are more sensible of the exposure of a fault than of its existence.

Physical education has been so utterly neglected in this country, my experience urges me to suggest in conclusion, that nothing would conduce more to personal cleanliness, becoming deportment, and manly

fees.

bearing, than the introduction of military drill. The crooked backs, AppendixD. stooping heads, rounded shoulders, and contracted chests, I daily meet Attendance with, painfully impress me with the necessity there is for adopting a and Schoolcourse simple in itself, which would so readily contribute to the development of the human form. I understand that military drill prevails in Mr. the schools of Scotland and England; and there can exist no valid Macaulay. reason why Ireland should be deprived of its undoubted advantages.

District 2, Londonderry; Mr. Bole.-The past year has been charac- Mr. Bole. terized by more than usual educational activity in the schools of this district. This is a natural, and at the same time, gratifying effect produced by the system of examination and payment for results. This system has been removed from the region of speculation, and is now an established fact. It has become so easily and naturally; and but little difficulty has been experienced in bringing about so important a change. Both managers and teachers have, as a general rule, received the new system more favourably than was expected; and I have received cordial co-operation in carrying out its details. It has been found much more advantageous, and much less objectionable than was generally anticipated. Many true friends of education looked upon it with suspicion as having a tendency to deteriorate the quality of education, by looking mainly to mere reading, writing, and arithmetic. This, it is now well known, was adopting a narrow view, which the Commissioners never proposed in framing the programme for results examinations. Even allowing the fullest weight to the objection stated, it was sufficient to reply that the successful teaching of reading, writing, and arithmetic, with a moderate course of collateral subjects, is precisely what has been aimed at in the carrying out of the system for a large number of years, but has never yet been attained, and that a great point will be gained if, through the new stimulus applied, the proficiency in those important branches will be improved, and the instruction imparted in them rendered more successful. But it is a mistake to suppose that any narrowing process has taken place in the course of instruction, as laid down in the new programme: on the contrary, it provides for a more thorough training of the pupils in the various subjects, and for the development of intelligence in connexion with the lesson books; while, at the same time, a close and searching examination of each pupil, such as was never before undertaken, the necessity of promoting pupils to a higher class when passed, and the encouragement afforded to the teachers by the payments awarded for successful instruction, make it reasonable to look for both proficiency and progress, such as used indeed to be found in a few excellent schools, but were unknown in the great majority of the schools over the country. It is pleasing to observe the interest taken in the examinations by the children themselves, who generally come to school on the examination day in their neatest and best attire, while even the youngest manifest an absence of apprehension, and exhibit a cordial and confident determination to acquit themselves as creditably as possible. I have reason to believe that these feelings are extensively shared in by the parents, and that the latter will gradually come to feel a greater interest in the progress of their children. Cases of absence of pupils from examination, except from illness, are very rare; and I have not found that in general there is any difficulty in inducing them to attend. One hundred and twenty-two schools were examined for results during the year, to visit which and overtake the other duties of inspection, I was obliged to travel 3,958 miles. There were 5,202 pupils actually

Appendix D. examined for results; leaving out Poor Law Union schools, 5,093 pupils Attendance were examined, for whom the payment in results fees amounted to and School- £1,502 48., being an average of 58. 103d. for each pupil examined. In

fees.

Mr. Bole.

Mr. O'Neill.

some excellent schools the amount earned was an average of 10s. per pupil examined; and the sum gained by teachers of ordinary schools on these examinations varied from £27 10s. 6d., the amount accruing to one teacher of a rural school to 7s., the total amount of results fees in another. It is evident that this system of payment is affording a practical and unexceptionable means of discriminating between faithful and successful work on the one hand, and worthlessness on the other.

There are many and serious drawbacks to the advancement of educa tion in this district still in existence. Over the greater part of it, there is such a want of material prosperity among the people as must seriously affect the interests of the schools. The attendance in a great number of the schools is irregular and fluctuating, and in a good many is confined to the winter months, when outdoor work is impossible. Many of the school-houses are poor and unsuitable, and such as must render it difficult to carry out properly in them the requirements of the time-table. A steady improvement in this respect is taking place from year to year, but very slowly. It is becoming increasingly difficult to secure the services of good male teachers to supply vacancies as they occur. And much disadvantage results over the greater part of this district from want of training for the teachers, who, owing to the opposition of the Roman Catholic bishops and clergy, are not at liberty to avail themselves of the training establishment. It is much to be desired that some means should be devised to put an end to the difficulty and loss arising from this restriction. The usefulness of the Model School as a training establishment for young teachers is much impaired by the fact that superior inducements are held out to young men to enter on other lines of life. The best of the pupil-teachers generally succeed in obtaining Excise appointments, or clerkships in Post Office, railway offices, or merchants' offices, all of which situations appear to promise higher advantages and better prospects than can be had in the office of teacher. As yet, however, the teaching staff has been fairly kept up, and has not much deteriorated; but the defective supply of qualified candidates must be a source of anxiety to all who are interested in the cause of education.

I regret to have to report that the cases were too numerous during the year, in which teachers yielded to the temptation to tamper with the records of attendance, so as to produce fictitious attendances qualifying pupils for examination. I do not think the fault will long continue, as the exposure and punishment of a few cases will probably act as a sufficient deterrent.

On the whole, I am satisfied that the general working of the schools of this district during the past year has been healthy and active, and indicative of improvement, and that there is good reason to look for still better results, when the changes recently effected shall have been longer in operation.

District 3, Coleraine; Mr. O'Neill.-I am happy to be able to state that the condition of the schools in this district is, in general, satisfactory, and that steady, if not rapid, progress has been observable in the great majority, within the year just ended.

Six new schools have been added to the roll. The number of pupils examined for results fees this year shows an increase of about 500 over the number examined in 1872-73. I am of opinion, too, that the stimulus of the results system has worked effectively throughout the

district in ensuring a satisfactory, or at least a fair amount of progress Appendix D. in the case of nearly every child who attended with sufficient regularity Attendance to be eligible for the results examination.

and School

While giving to the new system the praise to which I consider it fees. fully entitled, and believing it to be indispensable to the effective work- Mr. O'Neill. ing of any system of National education, I do not, however, regard it as faultless. Some defects have been removed since its first introduction— others, I learn, are likely to be remedied immediately. Under these circumstances, it seems unnecessary to discuss at any length the objections (some of them well-founded) which may be urged against the system as it exists at present. I shall content myself, therefore, with indicating what in my opinion is the chief danger to be guarded against in a system of payment by results, viz., its tendency to reduce schools to a uniform level of mediocrity. Results examinations have, unquestionably, a powerfully-stimulating effect in bringing up inferior and moderately good schools to a respectable standard of efficiency; but they may, I think, have an unfavourable effect on really first-class schools, unless some means can be devised for distinguishing between mere pass and excellence.

School Accounts.-Another evil that has been brought into prominence by the new system, but which cannot fairly be attributed to it, is falsification of the school accounts. Instances of this, I regret to say, have been so numerous during the past year as to render it evident that stringent measures are required to check it.

It would be very desirable that a new form of roll-book should be issued as soon as possible, with additional columns for entering the monthly attendances of each pupil, as lately directed by the Board, and embodying in the prefatory instructions the changes introduced by recent circulars.

Monitors. I am strongly of opinion that it would be desirable to revert to the former system of holding an annual examination of the second class or senior monitors, instead of examining them in their schools.

In the first place, there is an element of uncertainty as to the time at which the examination may be held under the new regulation; and I have reason to believe that this uncertainty often leads to the neglect of any special preparation for it. Other serious objections are the want of uniformity in the standard adopted for the examination of the monitors; the amount of time and trouble necessarily taken by the Inspector in preparing so many sets of examination questions; and the difficulty of conducting the examination of a monitor or monitors simultaneously with that of the ordinary pupils, unless at the risk of affording opportunities for obtaining surreptitious help.

Practically, I find that the examination of a monitor requires about two hours in addition to the time taken up by the regular examination of the school; and, after all, the examination is, by no means, so complete or satisfactory as I should wish.

By a recent regulation, monitors in ordinary schools have been placed upon the same footing, with regard to salary, as monitors in model schools. This I regard as a judicious step; and I think it would be very desirable if the assimilation were fully carried out, by granting to all monitors the advantages now confined to monitors in model schools, viz., an annual gratuity for the satisfactory discharge of their duties, to be granted on the joint certificate of Manager and Inspector, and a free stock of the Board's publications, to be given on the recommendation of Inspector, at the end of the first year of service.