§ SIR PATRICK O'BRIENasked the Chief Secretary to the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, Whether in a mixed national school the rule of the National Board at present is, that to entitle the school to the advantage of the teaching of an assistant schoolmistress the attendance must average seventy; whether the effect of this rule in the Ballyegan National School, King's County (where there are at present some twenty-three young girls attending), is, to leave them altogether to the charge of male teaching, and to prevent their receiving any instructions in sewing or other female industries, and of that female supervision so necessary to young female children; and, whether he will use his influence to have the rule amended?
MR. W. E. POPSTERSir, the hon. Baronet has correctly said that, according to the rule of the National Board, there must be an average daily attendance of 70 to require an assistant teacher, male or female. With respect to other schools attended by boys and girls, or mixed schools, the average daily attendance required is 35. In the particular school alluded to in the Question, the average daily attendance is only 37, 626 and the average daily attendance of girls is only 16. Under those circumstances, the school has no claim to an assistant schoolmistress. In England, I should state, an assistant teacher is not given unless the average daily attendance comes up to 100.