§ MR. SEXTONOn behalf of the hon. Member for North Roscommon, I beg to ask the Chief Secretary to the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland in what cases, and for what periods, are schools deprived of their teaching services of monitors by reason of the failure of such monitors to pass the 1st of July examination; and will he recommend that for the future the appointment or apportionment of monitors to schools for each year shall take place after the monitors have passed these examinations, so that the schools may run no risk of being deprived of the assistance to which their attendance entitles them?
*THE CHIEF SECRETARY FOR IRELAND (Mr. J. MORLEV, Newcastle-upon-Tyne)The examinations which are held in Jul)' are for the third year of service, or in the extended course for the fifth year. If the monitor failed at either, the Commissioners of National Education take all the circumstances into consideration when determining whether a new appointment, or any appointment, shall be made. The appointment, or apportionment, of monitors to schools is determined some time prior to July in anticipation of the probable number of vacancies that will occur on the 1st July when the monitorial year commences. Should a monitor of the third year of service fail at the July examination, which failure 1143 could not, of course, be anticipated by the Inspector, a successor cannot be appointed for 12 months—i.e., the appointment, if approved, would be from the 1st July following. Failure indicates, unless otherwise satisfactorily explained, a lack of training capacity on the part of the teacher. The Commissioners are not prepared to make any change in their rule on this subject, and no change has been recommended to them by any of their Inspectors or other educational authorities.