MR. FIELDI beg to ask the Chief Secretary to the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland whether his attention has been called to resolutions of managers of national schools in Ulster and Connaught, whereby they endeavour to prevent national 1071 teachers from belonging to a legal organisation and, whether, in view of the number of illiterates in Ireland, the Government intend to give the Irish local government bodies a share of control over the system of national education and the appointment and dismissal of Irish national teachers.
§ *MR. G. W. BALFOURI have referred this question to the Commissioners of National Education, who have informed me they have received no communication on the subject of the resolutions referred to. There is no intention on the part of the Government of giving local authorities a share of control over the appointment and dismissal of the teachers in Irish National schools, but it may be remarked that the Irish Education Act of 1892 vests in the county councils the power of bringing the compulsory clauses of the Act into operation within the areas of the rural districts of their respective counties, which seems to be the most direct means of coping with illiteracy.