The payments made by us in respect of manual and practical instruction since 1st April, 1900, were as follows: New Rules. Since the publication of our last report we have issued a new edition of our Rules and Regulations containing many important changes. We had previously made provision for seventh and eighth standards in our schools, and on the 31st December, 1904, there was a seventh standard in 1,240 schools, and, of the pupils on the rolls on that date, 9,143 were in the seventh or higher standard. Our recently published rules provide for the issue of a merit certificate to every pupil, over certificates. thirteen years of age, who has been enrolled in the seventh standard for one year, and who has, in the opinion of the inspector, attained to considerable proficiency in English, arithmetic, and geography. Merit New scheme for monitors. Intermediate students. Under these rules the managers of National schools are at liberty, subject to the recommendation of the inspectors, to adopt for the seventh and eighth standards certain prescribed courses from the programmes issued by the Intermediate Education Board. In our last report we referred to new schemes for monitors and pupil-teachers, by which special inducements would be offered to candidates who had passed the examinations under the Intermediate Education Board. We regret that our proposals have not yet been sanctioned in their entirety; but we have been enabled to provide for the appointment as monitors, without further examination, of students who have passed in the junior or middle grade, and already some such students have been recommended by our inspectors. We have also provided that persons who have passed the examinations in the middle or senior grade may be admitted to a Training college on qualifying in those subjects of the King's scholarship programme which are not covered by the special courses in which they passed at the Intermediate examinations. In addition to the general supervision which the principal of Criticism a school exercises over the teaching of the pupil-teachers and lessons. monitors during the school hours we now require, for their more efficient training, that a formal criticism lesson shall be given once in each week. In the appendix to this report will be found the opinions of some of the inspectors as to the value and educative effect of these lessons. school requisites. In our recent code we have published new rules regard- Books and ing the selection of books for use in our schools. Books and school requisites may now be purchased direct from the vendors, and it is no longer necessary to send the orders through the Commissioners' office. In our last report we referred to the very large number of Small small schools receiving grants from us, and to the disastrous schools. consequence" of the sub-division of schools into boys' and girls' schools and its ruinous effect upon the instruction of boys from three to seven years of age. We pointed out possible methods of remedying this unsatisfactory state of things, viz., (1) by insisting on the transfer of all boys between three and seven to girls' schools, (2) by amalgamating adjoining schools, (3) by amalgamating senior boys' and girls' departments, and by the creation of more infants' departments, (4) by the employment of manual instructresses in boys' schools or by permitting their employment in two or more adjoining schools. Our recently published code provides for the appointment of an assistant mistress in a boys' school when the attendance warrants it, and contains the following new rules: Rule 127 (b). "Boys under eight years of age are ineligible for enrolment in a boys' school where there is not an assistant mistress unless there is no suitable school under a mistress available in the locality." Rule 186." Separate ordinary schools for boys and girls adjoining or in close proximity, and under the same management, in one or both of which there is an average attendance of less than thirty, must be amalgamated on the retirement of either principal, unless for special reasons it shall be otherwise directed." Rule 187. "In the case of applications for the recognition. of boys' and girls' schools in the same locality in place of a mixed school, aid cannot be granted to separate schools unless there is satisfactory evidence that each school will have an average attendance of at least fifty pupils." In May, 1904, rule 127 (b) was adopted by us, in principle, Rule 127 (6) in our observations on Mr. Dale's report, which we communi cated to Your Excellency. In October, 1904, it was unani Rule 127(6) mously passed by us as a rule and again, unanimously, in December, 1904, when it was included in the new code. We may here give a brief outline of the reasons which have ied us to add this rule to the Code. For the last thirty years, at least, managers, inspectors, and teachers have been recommending, and in many instances, attempting to gain for the schools the educational advantages which the rule will finally make general. In the Convent schools, boys have always been admitted and taught up to nine years of age. Infants' schools have been established not only in the cities and towns, but also in villages, in which boys were retained until nine years of age-and even till ten years of age, by a regulation of three years ago. But not only were boys taught in Convent and infants' schools under mistresses, but, in the case of boys' and girls' separate schools, managers were permitted to enrol boys under seven years of age in the girls' schools—a privilege of which they, on educational grounds, frequently availed themselves. These facts are sufficient to show what was the general opinion as to the advantages to be gained by having boys in their earlier years under the training and instruction of women. Long before the discontinuance of results examinations our attention was drawn to the defective training of infants, especially in boys' schools. As a consequence, instructions were issued that the infants' class in every school should be prepared in two of the following exercises :-ballframe, singing, drill, kindergarten, &c., in addition to the usual test in order to qualify for a full “pass and to earn the full fee per unit for the teacher. The revised programme of 1901 prescribes kindergarten, drill, singing, and object lessons for the first standard in all schools. But, notwithstanding regulations and circulars, the training of infants in boys' schools was still reported by the inspectors as unsatisfactory. Kindergarten was very rarely taught, the singing was seldom good-a man's voice being a very unsuitable pattern for small boys-little attention was paid to training the boys to good habits, the teachers took little interest in such young children, and brightness and animation were wanting in the teachers and the pupils. So deeply were the inspectors impressed by the failure of masters to train young boys successfully that in July, 1903, the senior inspectors (22) unanimously made the following recommendations : "Wherever practicable, boys under eight years of age should be under the charge of a mistress. "In order to assist in teaching junior standards, a female assistant might be allowed in a boys' school under a master." "The teachers in mixed schools with an average of thirtyfive and under should be women." These recommendations were made by the senior inspectors solely in the interests of efficiency and in their desire to improve education. Subsequently Mr. Dale gave a very strong expression of Rule 127(6) opinion on the subject of the sub-division of schools into boys' and girls' schools and its effect upon the instruction of infant boys. At page 37 of his report he writes : 124. "This sub-division is also most objectionable on educational grounds. In a mixed school of (say) sixty children taught by two teachers, one teacher can devote his undivided time to the instruction of the older children, the other to the younger; but when the school is split up into two separate departments of thirty boys and thirty girls, each teacher has to take both older and younger, with the natural result of interrupting the continuity and impairing the efficiency of his work." 125. "The most disastrous consequence of this sub-division is its effect on the instruction of the boys from three to seven years of age, who are separated from the girls of corresponding age and placed under the master. If there is any point of agreement among all interested in education, it is that a man, both by temperament and training, is unfitted to teach infants, and that the charge of them should be entrusted to women. Yet the prevailing organisation of a large number of schools in Ireland exhibits an absolute disregard of this elementary consideration; and the consequence I found to be, that in nearly all the small boys' schools that I visited the instruction of the infants was unsuitable and ineffective. They were frequently neglected altogether, while the master taught the older scholars; nor can it reasonably be expected that a man should possess the patience or sympathy with very young children which are natural to even an unskilled woman teacher, and which are the indispensable prerequisites for any successful teaching of infants," In the "Notes for Teachers" issued in April, 1904, under the head The Training and Teaching of Infants," it is stated that" In the case of boys' and girls' schools adjoining each other the boys under seven years should be enrolled in the girls' school and taught by a mistress." We hope it will be now quite plain to Your Excellency that, owing to such a strong and unanimous expression of opinion on the part of those who have been engaged in the promotion of education in primary schools, we had no option in the interests of the infant boys attending our schools but to frame and bring into operation rule 127 (b) or one drawn with the same object in view. Though the rule was framed with the sole purpose of increasing the efficiency of the training of infant boys, and though it was very rarely, and with much reserve, denied that the rule would have that effect, yet, on the initiation of the teachers, followed by the managers, an agitation sprang up against the rule. The main objections urged against the rule were: (a) that it would lead to the dismissal of hundreds of assistants in the boys' schools; (b) that it originated with the Treasury in a cheeseparing policy to substitute women as teachers instead of men; (c) that it would lower the incomes of principals of boys' schools both as regards grade and capitation; Rule 127 (6) (d) that it interfered with the rights of the parent to send his children to any school he wished; (e) that it would "feminize" the boys; (f) that, combined with rule 186 it would lead to the amalgamation of boys' and girls' schools, and the consequent co-education of the sexes-a consequence fraught with grave moral danger. We carefully considered all the representations made to us, and as there seemed to be much misconception as to the probable operation of the rule, we thought it well to define at greater length the limits of its action. Accordingly, at a meeting of the Board, the following interpretations of its scope were agreed to: (1) boys under eight years of age need not be excluded from (2) a "suitable" school means a school in which there is This last provision would act as a safeguard to the interests of the assistants in boys' schools. As regards the second objection, the Treasury have had nothing whatever to do with the rule in its inception and discussion. It is true that the strict application of the rule might lower the incomes of the principals of small boys' schools by preventing their promotion in grade and by reducing their capitation grant. The remedy for this risk is obvious. If the girls' school is amalgamated with the boys' school the master will, if efficient, be able to rise to a higher grade than if he had continued principal of his small boys' school, and the mistress who has become his assistant will retain, by the special permission of the Treasury, her income undiminished. Objections (d) and (e), as they have no foundation in fact in any country and in any circumstances, require no observations. With regard to the alleged effect of the education of boys and girls in the same schools, sentiment and tradition have taken the place of fact and experience. Upon this point Mr. Dale observed, page 48" It should, however, be observed that in some parts of Ireland Roman Catholic managers object to mixed |