§ MR. BODKINI beg to ask the Chief Secretary to the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland is he aware that school chil- 1131 dren and monitors in Ireland under the National Board are examined in the contents of their reading hooks, extending in some cases to nearly 2,000 pages of miscellaneous information, and consisting of totally disconnected pieces of prose and poetry; whether he is aware that, inasmuch as the preparation for this examination involves cramming the result is necessarily uncertain, as complete mastery of the subject-matter is impossible, and that the examination is viewed with dissatisfaction by the teachers, monitors, and pupils; and whether any such system prevails in England; if not, whether he will take steps to abolish the system existing in Ireland and substitute the system prevailing in the English Board schools?
MR. J. MORLEYThe series of reading books is graduated for pupils according to their classes, but none of these books extends, so I am informed, to 2,000 pages. The number of pages varies from 64 to 484. Monitors at their final examination, which takes place at the close of their five years' monitorial course, are examined in the series of lesson books which, as pupils and monitors, they have already passed through. I have no information that the examination is viewed with dissatisfaction by either monitors or pupils. It was stated in a reply to a question by my hon. Friend on November 30th last that the English and Irish courses do not correspond and cannot be compared.