§ MR. T. W. RUSSELL (Tyrone, S.)To ask the Chief Secretary to the Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland whether, seeing that first class teachers who were in receipt of full class salary at the time of grading as well as during the three previous years (the average incomes of which were taken as the basis for fixing the present salaries), 1387 and whose schools have now and had during those years the necessary average attendance for first division of first grade, have been placed in the second division of first grade simply because their consolidated incomes (exclusive of capitation grant) fell between the maximum income of the second division of first grade and the minimum income of the first division of first grade, he will say whether teachers so placed, although having the same satisfactory reports as those teachers who at time of grading were in receipt of the prescribed income for the first division of first grade, must now obtain for three consecutive years the report noted excellent before they can be promoted to the first division of first grade or before they can receive such an increase of salary as will bring their income to the prescribed minimum of that grade; and whether teachers placed, by the accident of salary, in the first division of first grade can qualify for increments of salary by obtaining reports lower than excellent.
(Answered by Mr. Wyndham.) I am informed by the Commissioners that on the introduction of the present system of consolidated payments of teachers' salaries they allowed to each teacher his average income from State sources for the three years ended 31st March, 1900; or, if this arrangement operated inequitably, such a sum as in the judgment of the Commissioners was warranted by the circumstances of the particular case. The grade in which each teacher was then recognised was determined by the amount of his average income. The promotion of a teacher to a higher grade than that in which he was placed in view of his income was subject to the requirements of Rule 195 (g), (h), (i), (j), of the Commissioners' Code. This rule provides that promotion from a lower to a higher grade and from the second to the first section of the highest grade depends on (1) training; (2) position in school; (3) ability and general attainments; (4) good service; (5) seniority; (6) average attendance. I Excellent or very good reports in respect of a school must have been received from the inspectors for three years subsequently to the 1st April, 1900, in order to warrant the promotion of a teacher from second division of first grade to first section of that grade, and he must have been recommended for such promotion by the senior Inspector of his circuit. Increments 1388 of salary within the limits of the scale of salaries provided for each grade are awarded on satisfactory evidence of "good service" within the triennial period in respect of which the increment is granted; but the Commissioners do not require so high a standard of excellence to warrant the award of an increment of continued good service salary as they do to merit the selection of a teacher for grade promotion.