§ MR. BODKINI beg to ask the Chief Secretary to the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland what are the conditions in regard to number of attendances or otherwise that entitle a school under the Irish National Board of Education to the services of a paid monitor or monitress; whether the examination of the monitors and monitresses takes place in July each year after their appointment to the schools, and in case of failure in this examination they are summarily dismissed and their schools thereby deprived for the year of the assistance they would otherwise receive under the Rules; and will he cause the system to be so altered that the examinations may take place first and the appointment to the schools afterwards?
MR. J. MORLEYThe Commissioners of National Education inform me that monitorial appointments are made by the Board, so far as the Parliamentary grant allows, on the recommendation of their Inspectors, and with a special regard to the probable demands for duly prepared teachers in the future. The Inspectors carefully consider in each case the suitability of the teachers for training monitors, the fitness of the 1031 schools, and their general character. The general conditions of appointment are set forth at length in the Commissioners' published Code. Paid monitors are examined each year on the occasion of the annual results inspections of their schools. These inspections take place in any month that has been prescribed for them. Should the monitors fail, their appointments may then be cancelled; and it is open to Inspectors, if there has been no unusual negligence manifested on the part of the teachers, to recommend successors from the commencement of the next monitorial year—namely, July 1. At the end of the third monitorial year monitors are examined on special papers at the district centres in the month of July, and if they fail successors may not be appointed till July 1 following. The Commissioners see no sufficient grounds for relaxing the conditions of these appointments in the direction suggested.
§ MR. BODKINI wish to ask the right hon. Gentleman whether, under the Rules that now exist, it is not a fact that if the monitor fails to pass—and for this, at any rate, the pupils cannot be held to be responsible—the school is deprived of the services of a monitor till the following year?
MR. J. MORLEYThe hypothesis upon which the National Board of Education proceeds is that every school has a sufficient staff' to carry on its work without the assistance of monitors, and that adequate salaries are paid for the purpose.
§ MR. BODKINIs it, then, to be supposed that the monitors who do a large quantity of the teaching work of the school are mere surplus, and that the pupils do not suffer from the withdrawal of their assistance, although the teacher may have 50 children to teach?
§ MR. MACARTNEYWhat educational benefit does a school derive from a monitor who is unable to pass this very ordinary examination?
§ [No answer was given.]
§ MR. BODKINI beg to ask the Chief Secretary to the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland whether schools under the Irish National Board of Education having an average attendance of 50 are 1032 allowed the services of a paid monitor or monitress if they are taught by a first or second-class teacher, but are denied such assistance if the teacher holds only a third class certificate; and whether he will consider the advisability of supplying the assistance of a monitor or monitress in schools taught by a third-class teacher?
MR. J. MORLEYSchools having an average attendance of 50 pupils are allowed the services of a monitor if taught by a first or second-class teacher, and provided all other conditions are fulfilled. The assistance of a monitor is not absolutely denied in the cases of schools taught by third-class teachers; as a rule, the schools taught by teachers of first- and second-class have a preference in the matter of these appointments over schools taught by teachers of the lowest class. There are 112 cases in which under exceptional circumstances third-class teachers have paid monitors to instruct. The main object of appointing monitors is preparatory training for teacherships, and, irrespective of monitorial assistance, adequate salaries are granted for the maintenance in schools of a sufficient teaching staff. The Commissioners inform me they are not prepared to relax the conditions under which schools are selected for monitorships.