§ MR. BODKINI beg to ask the Chief Secretary to the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland is he aware (1) that National schools in Ireland are allowed the services of paid monitors in proportion to their attendance, an attendance of 40 entitling to the service of one, and so on, and that those monitors render valuable and indispensable assistance in their respective schools; (2) whether the examination of monitors takes place on the 1st of July, immediately after their appointment, and, if they fail to pass such examination, they are dismissed, and the schools to which they were appointed are thereby deprived of their services for an entire year; (3) if a single teacher is unable to carry on the instruction of a school with an average attendance of 40 children, it is expected that the teacher will pay for assistance out of salary, and what is the average salary out of which such payment is to be made; (4) and will he direct that for the future the monitors' examinations may in all cases take place before their appointment, so that each school may be thus secured a full complement of competent monitors in proportion to attendances?
MR. J. MORLEY(1) The Regulation is that the school for which a monitor is recommended must, as a general rule, exhibit an average daily attendance of not less than 40 pupils. The appointment of additional monitors will depend upon the average attendance and the staff of recognised teachers employed by the school. Candidate monitors are, as a rule, appointed upon a competitive examination between themselves and their fellow-pupils held in their schools some time prior to -July. The Annual Results Examination (such examination may take place in any month of the year) may serve, and practically does serve, for this examination. A Report is then made by the Inspector to the Commissioners; and the candidate, if approved by the Board, is appointed from the 1st July following. (2) It is not the fact, as stated in the question, that an examination takes place on the 1st of July immediately after a monitor's appointment. The examination of a monitor is twofold. First, as a pupil, a status he occupies 710 during the whole period of his monitor-ship—three or five years; and, secondly, as a monitor; if he fail as a pupil at any time, it is quite clear he is unworthy to be retained as monitor. But this rarely happens. It is upon his examination as a monitor that it is decided whether he should or should not be retained. Should the Inspector at the Results Examination of Monitors, or at special examinations, meet any cases in which the monitors fail badly, or in which on any other grounds their services should be dispensed with, they are required to recommend the removal of such unfit monitors. As the monitor was appointed from the 1st of July, the Regulation shows that he must have been at least six months a monitor before his first technical examination can be held. (.'!) The examinations for the appointments, of course (as already shown), take place before the appointments are made. The Rule is as follows:—
Candidates must have answered satisfactorily at the last Results Examination in the class in which presented.
§ MR. BODKINIs it not a fact that the monitors' examination occurs on the 1st of July, and that if the monitor fails to pass the school is deprived of his services for a year?
§ MR. BODKINWill the right hon. Gentleman consider the suggestion that the examination of monitors should take place before appointment, and thus secure for schools the full complement of teachers?