§ MR. MACALEESE (Monaghan, N.)I beg to ask the Chief Secretary to the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland whether the Commissioners of National Education have made a certain rule whereby teachers who obtained the grade of first of second class under the old programme are deprived of promotion to first class for highly efficient service, while those who obtain first of second class under the new programme can be promoted to first class for the same efficient service; whether he is aware that the first of second class teachers on the old programme are aggrieved with this treatment, which they regard as a great injustice, as most of them were trained under the same conditions as the new programme teachers, receive the same salary, and have been promoted to their present class on account of efficient service given in their schools; will he use his influence with the National Education Commissioners to have this state of affairs remedied and these teachers placed, in regard to promotion, under the same conditions; is the course generally followed in the various branches of the 1151 public service, when changes are made, to give to all holding the same rank the same privileges for promotion; and was this the course hitherto followed by the Commissioners of National Education.
§ THE CHIEF SECRETARY FOR IRELAND (Mr. G. W. BALFOUR,) Leeds, CentralI am informed by the Commissioners that the teachers who obtained the grade of first division of second class under the old system do not stand on the same level as those who obtained this class under the new programme, the latter being obliged to pass an examination for that purpose, which closely approximates to the test formerly applied for first class. It is in virtue of this higher literary status of the new first division of second class that further examination is dispensed with in their case, and it is open to those holding the same grade under the old system to obtain a like privilege on passing the same examination with the required answering. Representations have been made on behalf of teachers holding the grade of first division of second class under the old system on the subject of their supposed claim to similar treatment as regards promotion with those of the new first and second grade, but for the reason stated the Commissioners do not consider there is sufficient ground for such a claim. With respect to the third, fourth, and fifth paragraphs, the course at all times followed by the Commissioners in the matter of the promotion of their teachers was that which was in accordance with the provisions of their rules for the time being, and rank has always been regarded as but one of the elements governing promotion in the Commissioners' service.