THIRTEENTH REPORT

OF THE

COMMISSIONERS OF NATIONAL EDUCATION IN IRELAND.

FOR THE YEAR 1846.

TO HIS EXCELLENCY GEORGE WILLIAM FREDERICK, EARL OF CLARENDON, LORD LIEUTENANT-GENERAL AND GENERAL GOVERNOR OF IRELAND.

May it please your Excellency,

I.-1. We, the Commissioners of National Education in Ireland, beg leave to submit to your Excellency this our Thirteenth Report.

II.-2. On the 31st of December, 1845, we had 3,426 Schools in operation, attended by 432,844 children. At the close of the year 1846 the number of Schools in operation was 3,637, and of pupils in attendance therein, 456,410. The total increase in the number of these Schools within the year was, therefore, 211, and of pupils 23,566.

3. On referring to our Report for the year 1845, it will be found that the increase in the attendance during that year was 37,294. The diminished amount of increase in 1846, as compared with the amount of increase in 1845, may be fairly ascribed to the prevailing distress, which has compelled parents to obtain employment for their children on the public works. From subsequent returns received by us, we have reason to apprehend that the decrease in the daily average attendance will be much greater this year than it was in 1846.

4. In addition to the 3,637 Schools in operation, we have promised grants towards the building of 335. Of these grants, 154 have been undertaken by us during the past year; and the grants, when paid, will amount to £11,501 17s. 6d. These 335 Schools, when completed, will afford accommodation to 31,461 additional pupils.

5. The number of Schools struck off the roll during the year 1846, for various causes specified in the Appendix, was

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85. Fourteen others have been suspended, but not withdrawn. The number of our Schools, including both those in operation, and those towards the erection of which we have promised aid, was, at the close of the year 1846, 3,986; and the actual and expected attendance of pupils, 487,871.

6. The following table shows the progressive increase in the number of National Schools, and of children in attendance therein, from the establishment of our Board, in 1831, to the 31st of December, 1846:

TABLE showing the progressive increase in the NATIONAL SCHOOLS, and the NUMBER of CHILDREN in attendance upon them, from the date of the First Report of the Commissioners of National Education in Ireland, to the 31st December, 1846.

7. Of the 3,986 Schools on our roll on the 31st of December, 1846, there are 1,601 in the province of Ulster, 919 in Munster, 932 in Leinster, and 534 in Connaught.

8. During the year 1846, we had under consideration 573 applications for new Schools, to 353 of which we have been enabled to make grants, either for building or for salaries. The remaining applications, viz., 220, were rejected for various reasons.

III.-9. Our Model Schools in Marlborough-street, continue to be numerously attended, and efficiently conducted.

Of the above 3,637 Schools in operation, there are 109 which receive no other aid from the Board than books and the benefits of inspection. They are divided as follow:-99 Workhouse Schools, 6 Gaol Schools, and 4 ordinary National Schools, of which the managers or patrons decline to receive salary.

The number of children on the books belonging to these schools on the 30th September, 1846, was 19,067.

The number of children on the rolls, on the 30th September, 1846, was,-males, 636; females, 429; and infants, 303; making a total of 1,368.

10. It is a remarkable and gratifying fact, that the average daily attendance at our Model Schools in Dublin is not diminished, but is even higher, during the present calamitous season, than it has been at any former period.

11. The arrangements for the separate religious instruction of the children of all persuasions attending these schools, and also of the teachers in training, continue to be carried into effect every Tuesday, under the respective Clergymen, with punctuality and satisfaction. Previously to the arrival of the Clergymen, each of the teachers in training is employed in giving catechetical and other religious instruction to a small class of children belonging to his own communion. These teachers attend their respective places of worship on Sundays; and every facility is given, both before and after Divine Service, as well as at other times, for their spiritual improvement, under the directions of their Clergy.

IV.-12. The total amount of salaries paid to National teachers for the year ending 31st December, 1846, was £44,177 118. 6d. Calculating the total number of teachers at only 4,000, the average amount of salary is £11 to each.

13. We neither profess, nor are we authorized by the State, to make grants of salaries to teachers, except in aid of local contributions from the patrons of the Schools, and from the parents of the children. The salaries supplied by us are to be regarded as only supplementary to those local payments. We have, however, long felt that the rates of salaries heretofore paid by us, of which the minimum is only £8, and the maximum, except in a few cases, £20, ought, as soon as possible, to be augmented.

14. With this view, amongst others, we have applied to Parliament for an increase to our grant; and we trust that we shall be enabled, in the course of the present year, to make a small addition to the salary of each of our teachers. We calculate that the sum required for this purpose will be at least £8,000, and that the total expenditure, under the head of salaries to teachers, from the 31st of March, 1847, to the 31st March, 1848, will amount to about £58,000. We have under consideration our present system of classification, with the intention of remodelling it upon a higher scale of salary, the details of which will be published in our next Report.

15. We trust that the arrangement which has recently received the sanction of Government, for giving retiring pen. sions to meritorious teachers in England, will, as soon as possible, be extended to this country.

16. During the distress that has lately afflicted the country, we have felt it our duty to obtain the permission of his late Excellency the Earl of Bessborough, to award gratuities, in addition to their ordinary salaries, to our poorer teachers. For this purpose we have expended the sum of about £3,000. This addition, however, is not sufficient to counterbalance the increased price of the necessaries of life.

17. We continue to divide the interest arising yearly from Lord Morpeth's donation of £1,000 amongst a limited number of our teachers, selected for their literary attainments, and for their skill in teaching. With a view, also, of rewarding merit of a different, yet very important kind, we have resolved that a sum of £10 shall be allocated to each of our thirty-four school districts, and distributed in gratuities, varying in amount from £1 to £3, to such of the teachers as are most distinguished by the order, neatness, and cleanliness observable in themselves, their scholars, and school-houses.

V.-18. The receipts from the sale of our school-books to National Schools, continue to increase, and amounted for the last year to £6,129 16s. 4d.

19. The value of the books given as free stock, during the year, to 942 National Schools, was £3,142 16s. 10d. By means of this free stock, every National School is furnished, gratuitously, with a reasonable supply of our books once in four years.

20. In addition to the usual grants of free stock, we have this year given, out of a private fund placed at our disposal, a supply of books and requisites to a limited number of Schools in the poorest districts, principally in Connaught, of the value of £600.

21. The demand for our School-books, not only in England and Scotland, but in our Colonies, is rapidly increasing-in Upper Canada especially, where a system of National Education, closely resembling our own, has been recently established. The Canadian Board of Education have requested us to supply them, from time to time, with our books, on the usual terms, in order that these publications may be generally introduced throughout their Schools. They have also solicited us to recommend to them, out of our own

establishment, a Head Master for the Normal School which they are about to found at Toronto.

VI.-22. We had in connexion with us on the 31st of December, 1846, ninety-nine Workhouse Schools, exhibiting an increase of nine within the year, and comprising about three-fourths of the schools belonging to 130 Poor Law Unions, into which Ireland is divided.

23. It has long been felt, both by the Government and by ourselves, that no part of the education of the poor requires or admits of more decided improvement than the instruction of pauper children in the Workhouse Schools. The teachers have hitherto been, in most instances, inadequately paid; the consequence of which has been that men of superior qualifications, educated under us, are disinclined to undertake an office in other respects much less attractive than that of teaching in our ordinary schools. In order to remedy, in some degree, this defect, we have resolved, with the concurrence of the Poor Law Commissioners, to award annual gratuities to the most deserving of the Workhouse teachers, selected by our Superintendents. The increase in the number of our Superintendents will enable us to apply a more vigilant inspection to these Schools; and we have directed, in accordance with the request of the Poor Law Commissioners, that copies of our Superintendents' Reports be periodically transmitted to the Guardians, that they may, from time to time, be fully apprized of the actual state of their schools.

24. In reference to Workhouse Schools, we beg leave to express to your Excellency our conviction, that any system of mere literary instruction pursued in them, would in itself be incomplete in the case of the pauper children, the majority of whom are deprived of the guardianship of their parents. We have, therefore, heard with great satisfaction of the intention of transferring such pupils at the proper stage of advancement, to industrial establishments, similar in their general object to the Norwood School in England, in order to qualify them for their different employments in afterlife.

VII.-25. Of the schools carried on in the several gaols of Ireland, only six have been placed under us; and these receive from us no other aid except grants of books and the benefit of inspection. The instruction given in this class of schools is, we fear, of a very inferior description. It is,