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schools are too numerous; but, owing to a variety of causes, this defect AppendixD. cannot easily be remedied.

Attendance

fees.

State of School Buildings.-Some 44 of the school-houses are low, and Schoolthatched buildings, most of which are rented from neighbouring farmers, and are in no respect well adapted for school purposes; some 70 of them Mr. Healy. have no premises, properly so-called; and some 83 have no out-offices ; speaking as a whole, the school buildings and furniture are of a very humble type, having hardly anything about them calculated to improve the tastes of the pupils.

Rent and Cost of Repair of School Buildings.-The cost of repairing the school-houses and furniture falls in most instances on the teachers, who, besides, have to pay the rent where such is paid. This is not only a grave injustice to the teachers concerned, but is highly injurious to the cause of education, as it prevents duly qualified persons from taking charge of schools where their incomes are liable to such an unjust taxation. It is, I consider, nearly equally unjust to ask the Managers, who, as a rule, are clergymen with limited means, to keep school-houses in repair it is the people of each locality that ought, and should be called on to maintain school-buildings, free of rent-certainly it is not the duty of the teacher, nor, in nearly equal degree, that of the Manager. Attendance of Pupils:

:

(a.) The average number of pupils on the rolls of the schools of the district, for the past twelve months was

10,677

(b.) The average daily attendance for same period was,

5,350

(c.) Total number of pupils that made 90 days' attendances during the twelve months,

6,338

(d.) Total number of these found present and individually examined at the

results examinations of the year,

6,115

The total number of pupils that made 90 days attendances or upwards in the year 1872-73 was 4,727. This number was in 1873-74, as we have seen, 6,338.

Thus, it appears that a marked and gratifying improvement has already set in with reference to increased regularity of attendance. From the interest both parents and children are beginning to manifest in the results examinations, I should not be surprised to find that, before many years pass by, at least 75 per cent. of the school-going population of the district will be found eligible from attendance for examination.

At my visits to the schools during the past two years, I took occasion to briefly bring under the notice of those present, the importance of the results examinations to the children. My remarks were, the teachers inform me, productive of good, in awaking public attention to the advantage of these examinations, and to the necessity of the pupils making a certain minimum attendance, in order to secure the privilege of being admitted to those examinations. It is certainly cheering to be able to record that the daily average attendance of pupils for the year just ended, was 6 per cent. higher than it was for the previous year. This gratifying fact is, I have no hesitation in stating, solely attributable to the operation of the results system.

Classification and Age of Pupils.-The subjoined table shows the classes in which the 6,115 pupils present that had made 90 attendances or upwards, were presented :

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Summary of results of the examinations of the different classes :

Appendix D. Attendance and Schoo fees.

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Mr. Cowley.

School-fees.-The amount of school-fees paid continues miserably small, being about 1s. 10d. a head for each child in daily average attendance. I can, however, notice no falling-off in the amount of fees paid-a result which had been anticipated to prove one of the evils of the results system. In my opinion the teachers themselves are chiefly in fault in this matter of school-fees. I can see no reason why teachers should not be true to themselves, and take a firm stand to make the people pay moderate fees for the schooling of their children. Waiving every consideration of the gain to the teachers which the payment of school-fees would effect, it is desirable on public grounds that such payments be made and insisted on, as they would insure a more regular attendance, and, as a consequence, higher educational attainments on the part of the pupils.

Supply of School Requisites.-The teachers are now more careful to keep up a proper supply of books and other requisites for sale to their pupils than formerly. The schools were kept, as a rule, very well supplied during the past year with the articles most in demand by the pupils. The maps and tablets are in many schools becoming much shattered. In such cases special grants of free stock would be of the highest importance, as it is very difficult for teachers to get such articles renewed.

Teachers. It is much to be regretted that the great majority of the teachers of this district are untrained. Most of them entered on the profession without even having passed through a course of monitorial training. The bad effects of this want of training is painfully evident in almost every school; the discipline, order, and general organization being very poor. The teachers, as a body, are young and earnest, but are wanting in that method and system, without which the best energies are sadly wasted, and the most devoted attention almost certain to be exposed to disappointment, when the exact tests of a results examination are applied. I find at present a more contented spirit abroad among the teaching-staff. As the system of results is becoming better known, it is becoming more acceptable. Complaints are still to be heard, but they are more about the details than against the principle of the system. There can be no doubt, it will require teachers to be exceedingly diligent, in order to keep pace with the requirements of the school programme in each succeeding year; their whole energies must be devoted to their work ; it will behove them to make their profession a study, so as to master the best mode of teaching the different subjects; they must consult with, and advise each other on their school duties; and last, and not least, they must strive to win the respect and esteem of the parents, and the hearty co-operation of the pupils. Undoubtedly the results obtained cannot be otherwise than hardly earned; let them when fairly and honestly earned, be generously and liberally paid for.

District 24, Bailieborough; Mr. Cowley.-No remarks.

District 25, Drogheda; Mr. MacCreanor.-1. The changes among the Appendix D. teachers during the past year have led to the commencement of a very Attendance decided improvement in school-keeping and successful teaching in this and Schooldistrict. This remark applies to at least eight of the schools, and the fees. improvement will, I expect, have a very marked effect in rearing up a Mr. Macstaff of young teachers in the district-an important matter that has Creanor. been specially difficult heretofore.

2. The difficulty of procuring qualified teachers is not likely to continue much longer in this district, as the monitorial system has, at last, been hopefully established in it, and as in some of the neighbouring districts I know there are several classed teachers wanting schools.

3. I can state with safety that payment by results is satisfactory to more than ninety per cent. of the teachers. Most of them hail it as a great boon.

4. Besides the careful results examination of all, I examined fully and made secondary reports on more than half the schools of the district between the 1st of April, 1873 and 31st of March, 1874. During the same period I visited all the schools incidentally-nearly three-fourths of them twice, about one-third of them three times, and a few of them four times. The late regulation, leaving it optional with the inspector to devote whole days to incidental visits, is well calculated to improve the usefulness of inspection, but it will increase the amount of travelling. By the usefulness of inspection I mean the sort of visits that must produce improved order and regularity in the schools, more active and becoming habits on the part of the teachers and much closer attention to the Rules and Regulations of the Board. A well made incidental visit of an hour's duration should be as useful as a secondary inspection; for remarkable inefficiency or irregularity in the working of any class or subject should be noticed by the practised eye of the Inspector in that time, and should be reported on an incidental as readily as on a secondary form of report. Few useful incidental visits can be made to single schools in less than from twenty to forty minutes, while many should occupy more than an hour. A saving can frequently be effected in visits to double schools.

5. I have observed that irregularities in a school readily become chronic, if a long period be allowed to pass before the manager and teacher be informed of the action taken by the Board on any reported irregularity.

6. The want of a denominational training establishment is seriously felt by the Roman Catholic managers and teachers here, and I think the opposition to mixed training was never more intense than it seems to be at present.

Nearly all the untrained teachers in this district at present have been recommended by me-several of them twice-for the Board's Training Establishment, on the lists returned every half-year, but only three have gone to it during the last eight years. Less than forty per cent. of the teachers in this district have been trained.

District 26, Westport; Mr. Horan.-The schools in this district are Mr. Horan. scattered over a large tract at considerable distances asunder. Notwithstanding this, the pupils flock in several miles to school during those periods of the year when they can be spared from field-work. The results system and the rule requiring the attendance to be recorded at eleven o'clock instead of twelve o'clock, as before, have had the effect of making the attendance more regular and more punctual. I seldom obtained a satisfactory reason why any pupil thirteen years of age or under could not attend for ninety days at least within the year, or why any

Attendance

fees.

Appendix D. pupil could not be in attendance at eleven o'clock, even from long disThe children themselves appear most eager to attend, but tances. and School- parents, because the system is practically gratis, keep them at home, especially girls, often for very frivolous reasons. While the average daily Mr. Horan. attendance this year, 38, is one less than the average attendance of the preceding year, the average number of pupils of ninety attendances or more within the year, 40, shows an increase of 7 over the same for the preceding year. Each school presented for actual examination an average of thirty-seven pupils. The cause of absence from the examination was almost always either sickness or change of residence. As six per cent. of the pupils on rolls leave school before the age of thirteen, the compulsory yearly promotion of pupils who attend fairly will produce very good effects on the general state of education in this district. The following is a tabular statement of the results of the examinations of the ninety-nine schools operative within the year :

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The attendance of pupils and their educational interests in general would be greatly bettered were the emoluments of the teacher's office such as to attract competent candidates. I do not find that the late increase has done much service in this way, though it has decidedly stimulated the zeal of the teachers already in charge in no small degree. I find that the united incomes of married teachers average £66, but there are only thirteen cases of this kind in the district, and the incomes of the greater part of the male teachers amount to only £35 10s. from all sources; of the female teachers, £28. In one-third of the schools the teachers receive no school-fees; receipts from this source average only £2 for each principal teacher; from local contributions £2; salary £25; results fees, £6. The total amount of results fees earned was £913 10s. 6d., being an average for each school of £9 4s. 6d. ; for each pupil examined, 58.

With a few exceptions, the schools are in a satisfactory state, under the circumstances, as to repair, apparatus, and fitting up; but the space accommodation is still inadequate in too many instances.

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1. The amounts earned last year, both in the district and per school, are 44 per cent. greater than the corresponding amounts earned in 1872-3.

2. The number examined for results shows an increase of 25.6 per cent. on the number examined in 1872-3, although there was an increase of only three in the number of schools, and although the average daily attendance at each school was almost the same in both years.

3. The number of pupils examined last year exceeded the average attendance by four per cent., while the number examined in 1872-3 was to the average attendance as 85: 100.

From these facts it follows that an increase in the number of pupils examined does not necessarily imply an improvement in the regularity of the attendance. This increase may be the result of reckoning Saturday's attendance, or of shortening the vacations.

I regret to say that I think it has been in many instances the result of wilful falsification of the school accounts. It was my painful duty to

report several such cases to the Board during the past year.

It is indeed strange that men of the most unimpeachable moral character in other respects, should have such little scruple to obtain money under what I do not hesitate to call "false pretences." The moral or mental obliquity which leads a man to think that the risk involved in the proceeding atones for its criminality deserves neither respect nor mercy. The teacher convicted of lying and fraud should be dismissed in the interests of the State which he robs, of his brethren whom he disgraces, and of his pupils whom he demoralizes.

District 28, Longford; Mr. H. W. M. Rodgers. In at least eight Mr. H. W. M. Rodgers. schools I found the space accommodation so lamentably deficient that the health of the teachers and pupils must necessarily suffer.

Since the introduction of the results system, the schools in this district appear to be more numerously attended than formerly, and in the cases I have referred to some decided course should be taken so as to meet the increase. In one of these schools a female assistant lately became insane, and continued in that state for several months. How far the arduous duties of teaching in too small a room, with a vitiated air, led to this result I cannot, of course, determine. At my urgent suggestion steps have already been taken to enlarge a few of these schools, and I entertain the hope that, before long, my suggestions as to the others will be attended to. The localities are very poor, and considerable patience may for a time be allowable.

I found many schools in which the teaching power was quite inadequate. This want I have generally been enabled to supply by recommending the appointment of additional monitors.

I observed an unusual degree of dampness in the walls of several

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