in 30 Model schools, with 73 departments and an average attendance of 6,951, the cost per pupil mounted to £3.19.10.12

Taking all these things into account the Model schools cannot be regarded as a success; the higher class of religious schools are doing much better work for less than half the money. Still the Model schools are maintained, in the interest-to a large extent, on paper-of combined literary and moral instruction, as also not on paper at all-to provide well-kept seminaries for the handful of Protestant children in four-fifths of the provincial towns of Ireland.

Of the seven Training Colleges five are under the management of Catholic bishops, one under that of the Protestant Archbishop of Dublin, and one under the immediate control of the Commissioners. The course in these institutions may be either of one or of two years: of one year for those who are already engaged in teaching; and of two years for such as have not yet received an appointment. The students, as a rule, reside in the Colleges, six of which are conducted on frankly denominational principles. In these the Head of the College, appointed by the manager, selects his own teaching staff; there are chapels and full provision for the religious exercises of the denomination to which the College belongs; and the whole is maintained by liberal grants from the public funds at the disposal of the Commissioners. 13

12 These are official figures, given in the Report of the Commissioners for 1906-7, p. 34. In addition the official Statement of Accounts for the year shows an item of £10,292.16.0 for "Special Expenditure-Maintenance, Pupil Teachers, and Special Teachers, Matrons, &c. "-on Model schools: that is, nearly £1.7.0 additional per pupil (6,951) in average attendance. This makes the total cost per pupil for these schools nearly £5.6.10, as against £1.19.7 in the convent schools-an excess out of all proportion. I find, moreover, in the Statement of Accounts an item of £120.8.2 for Free Grants of Books and School Requisites to Model schools. There have been in addition, from local sources or funds at the disposal of the Board of Works, expenditure on these schools which I cannot trace. It is plain that without being of very great service as models they are very costly institutions, certainly, except in three places, not wanted by Irish Catholics. 13 For training in Irish special provision has been made, in the official recognition of Colleges established, principally through the influence of the Gaelic League, for the teaching of Irish in Irish. Apart from what they may receive for instruction given to teachers in the National schools,

For the past ten years the number of resident students in these Training Colleges has been steadily increasing, from 421 men and 333 women in 1895-6 to 437 men and 657 women in 1905-6.14 The result is a gradual disappearance of untrained teachers. Whereas in 1880 there were 7,365 untrained as against 3,309 trained teachers, in 1906 the proportion was almost reversed-7,793 trained as against 4,805 untrained teachers.

The figures in the Report for 1906-7 are so mixed up that it is impossible to calculate accurately and compare the expense per head of students in the different Training Colleges. Making the best appropriation possible I find that, abstracting from special grants for buildings, in 1905-6 it was a little more than £50.18.0 in the Marlborough Street College (under the immediate control of the Commissioners), nearly £56.0.0 in the two Colleges (combined) 15 under the control of the Catholic Archbishop of Dublin, and £56.10.0 in the College controlled by the Protestant Archbishop. The non-Catholic Colleges have a far larger proportion of women students, whose maintenance is officially estimated to cost much less than that of men. Besides in the non-Catholic institutions men and women are taught in the same classes, so that there is a saving in the number of professors employed.

No one in Ireland has any doubt of the necessity of these Training Colleges, whatever opinion we may hold as to the sufficiency of the course or as to the quality of the results obtained. The six denominational Colleges may be said to have

these Irish Colleges are in receipt of no State aid whatsoever. Four of them have been established in Irish-speaking districts: two in Munster, one in Ulster, and one in Connaught. The Principals are paid by the Commissioners of National Education a sum of £5.0.0 for every teacher who, having attended a course in the College, passes an examination, and subsequently teaches Irish satisfactorily for one year in a National school.

14 It will be noted that the increase in the number of women students is very much greater than in that of the men.

15 The reason for combining the two-one for men, the other for women— is that men students cost more than women, and there are both men and women students in each of the other two Colleges with which these are compared.

but begun and will be much more fully developed. All are hampered by the smallness of the salary which the students may hope to receive in after life as teachers in the National schools. This leaves much to be desired in the qualifications of candidates for admission to the Colleges. When the salary of the teacher is raised, the students will be of a much better class and will benefit much more fully by the course of training.

vii. SUBJECTS OF SECULAR INSTRUCTION: SCHOOL-BOOKS.

The ordinary subjects taught in the National schools are: English (including as sub-heads reading and spelling, writing, composition, and grammar), geography, arithmetic, singing, drawing, needlework (for girls), physical drill, manual instruction, object-lessons and elementary science, cooking (for girls), laundry-work (for girls), kindergarten (for infants), hygiene, and temperance."

There is, in addition, provision for bilingual teaching, the second language being Irish, French, or Latin. A course of mathematics (that is, algebra, geometry, and mensuration), is regarded as indispensable in all boys' schools with two or more teachers, and no such school is regarded as doing really satisfactory work unless one or more of the mathematical subjects is taught efficiently. "The managers, moreover, may, with the approval of the Commissioners, arrange the programmes of their schools so as to suit the needs of the localities in which the schools are situated." 16

No fault can be found with the Programme, which is drawn out in detail in Schedule XVIII appended to the Rules and Regulations. There we learn that "a suitable Historical Reader should be used in the higher standards of the schools, a text-book in history being proposed as an alternative in the sixth standard of the better class of schools, and in the seventh standard a short period of history being made obligatory. There is no provision for the teaching of music as distinguished

16 R. and R., Ch. IX.

from singing; no wonder that music is now at a very low ebb in the land of the harp and the chamber bag-pipes.17

As to how this programme is worked out in practice I am not in a position to judge; the practical and economic sections especially must always be difficult to manage in country schools, many of which are unprovided with apparatus. This part of the programme, moreover, is of recent introduction and has not yet had time to tell on the habits of the people, so that it is not easy to judge of its value or of the way in which it is being taught. I doubt whether it will ever work out well till the local tax-payers are associated with the school management, helping to provide the apparatus for such subjects as cooking, laundry, elementary science, agriculture, and mechanics, as also to provide teachers for special subjects like music. I should like to see every cottage not only neat but echoing to the sound of the fiddle. Unfortunately, however, under present arrangements, Irish country children have little opportunity of learning that cheap but highly artistic instrument, which, were it not for the

"An official of the Board who kindly looked over the MS. of this article has remarked here that "instrumental music cannot be taught in a primary school, for obvious reasons." I confess that I cannot see the reasons. I do not contend that instrumental music should be made an obligatory subject; but could not teachers be stimulated by the hope of receiving special fees, to teach, let us say, the fiddle to any pupils who may wish to learn it—as Irish is now taught: many of the teachers, perhaps, are not competent to teach the fiddle: but so they were not competent to teach Irish: the hope of adding substantially to their small salary would stimulate them to qualify themselves, as it has done and is doing in Irish. I have been told, by one whom I regard as a good authority, that in England instrumental music is successfully taught in some of the primary schools; and I know that in many of the convent schools in Ireland-which are not paid at half the Model school rate of payment— it is taught to many of the children, without any remuneration from the Commissioners.

My friend has remarked also—and I record his words with pleasure,— that the sentence in the text commencing "No wonder," is very hard, for it ignores the very remarkable, if not wonderful progress of vocal music throughout the schools of the country during the last six years. It is now taught in practically every school in Ireland, and well taught." That is pleasant testimony from one who is both a musician and an Inspector of Schools; who, therefore, ought to know.

efforts of the Gaelic League, would be allowed to die out in Ireland almost as completely as our ancient harp and bag-pipes.

I have a suspicion, too, that too much is made of books as compared with fields, farm-yards, and workshops, which, no doubt, cannot be studied to very great profit except with the aid of the printed page. What the Irish peasant boy wants most is to become a good husbandman, a subject which he can be taught only by being taken through the fields and farm-yards under intelligent guidance. What the Irish girl most needs is to become a good house-wife; not in the mansion, with the means at the disposal of the wealthy, but with the apparatus that is or may be in every peasant's cottage. Reading, writing, and such things, no doubt, are good and should not be neglected; but neither should they so absorb the teachers' and children's attention as to leave no time for the more immediately practical and useful lessons.

I have referred to the provision for teaching history, but regret to say that very little encouragement is given to the study of the history in which Irish children may be presumed to take most interest-the history of their own country; which, to be taught at all, must be watered down lest the pupils should learn from it to dislike the present English connection. There is a little volume called The Story of Ireland, by the late Alexander Sullivan, which was the only book of its kind I could read as a boy. It is not stuffed with dates and questions for examination; it is something of what it pretends to be- a story; in which one is taken back into the past and enabled to see the men and women who made us what we are, living their lives and unconsciously making history. They are not mere symbols, about which a question might be asked conveniently, but living friends and foes, to be loved and wept over or hated with personal hatred. Such a book, no doubt, is calculated to make Irish boys feel no love for those who reduced their country to its present condition; which, of course, is the reason why the Commissioners could not be induced to sanction its use as a text-book. "No book," says the Rule (n. 124), "can be used for the purpose of united secular instruction "-which, as we have seen, is to be found