§ MR. SWIFT MACNEILL (Donegal, S.)To ask the Chief Secretary to the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland on what ground have the Professors of Chemistry and Physics of the Royal College of Science for Ireland not been consulted in the framing of the Science Syllabus adopted by the Board of Intermediate Education 1349 as framed by the Department of Agriculture and Technical Education. And whether he will now ascertain the views of the Professors of Chemistry and Physics in the College of Science with reference to the merits and educational value of the Science Syllabus.
(Answered by Mr. Wyndham.) It has already been stated that the Science Syllabus was framed by the new Department upon the advice of its own educational experts. The two Professors of Physics and Chemistry at the Royal College of Science were not consulted in the matter, it not being considered necessary lo do so. One of them gave a course of instruction to teachers in secondary schools in order to prepare them to introduce the syllabus into their schools. At the close of the course of instruction his observations on the syllabus were invited, in common with those of various other professors who conducted similar courses, and such observations will be duly considered by the Department. The second professor referred to in the Question declined to conduct a similar course of instruction, on the ground that he had no desire to undertake extra work at the close of a long session.