§ MR. BODKINI beg to ask the Chief Secretary to the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland whether paid monitresses are appointed each year, on the 1st July only, in numbers proportionate to the number of children attending each school; whether, after the 1st July, they are examined in a variety of subjects, including the lesson books of the Board, and on failure in those examinations are summarily dismissed; are the schools to which they were appointed thereby deprived of the assistance necessary for their efficient conduct for the residue of the year; and will he take immediate steps for the removal of this grievance?
§ MR. BRYCE (for Mr. J. MORLEY)The Board of National Education state that the appointments of paid monitresses are dependent on the fulfilment of other conditions which are subject to a limit fixed in proportion to the average daily attendance of pupils. Failure at any examination during the course renders a monitress liable to dismissal. Considerable allowance, however, is made for the answering, which is dealt with in an indulgent spirit. In the event of a vacancy, another appointment, should one be deemed desirable, can only be made on the recommendation of the District Inspector, and from July 1 following. The hypothesis is that every school shall have a sufficient staff to carry on the business of the school without the assistance of monitors, and the Commissioners state that adequate salaries are paid for such a staff. The Commissioners could not approve of a departure from the existing arrangements, nor could they recognise an absolute claim to a succession of monitors —namely, to the immediate replacement of a monitress who has failed by another.
§ MR. BODKINDo I understand the right hon. Gentleman to say that these monitresses having been appointed, and all the necessary conditions precedent to appointment having been fulfilled, their failure in examination deprives the school until the following July of the assistance it was deemed necessary to afford in the first instance?
§ MR. BRYCEAs I understand the facts, the staff of teachers, even in the absence of monitors and monitresses, is supposed and intended to be adequate for the efficient maintenance of the school.
§ MR. BODKINDo I understand the right hon. Gentleman to say the staff must be absolutely efficient without them?
§ MR. BRYCEThat may be going a ittle too far as applied to every possible case. If the hon. Gentleman will put any further question down, the Department will endeavour to answer it.