§ MR. MACVEAGHOn behalf of the hon. Member for East Mayo, I beg to ask the Chief Secretary to the Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland whether he has seen the resolution unanimously adopted at the Annual Congress of National Teachers, held in Sligo at Easter last, requesting that, as a recognition of scholarship as tested by examination, teachers who were placed in grades lower than their respective classes should be allowed to come up to the grades corresponding to their classes on the conditions required for the awarding of increments, without being subjected to the more rigid conditions laid down for promotion; whether he is aware that a similar resolution has been passed at every Annual Congress of National Teachers since the introduction of the new system as well as by almost all, if not all, the associations of teachers and school managers in Ireland; and whether this matter has received or will receive special consideration in the correspondence now proceeding with reference to the facilitating or expediting of the promotion of teachers.
§ MR. WALTER LONGThe Commissioners are unable to grant the concession asked for. Classification of teachers carried with it a right to class salary only, and this formed but a limited part of a teacher's total income. The gradation of teachers curries with it a right both to 812 grade salary and also to the corresponding good service salary, which together form the major portion of a teacher's income. To abolish the conditions of promotion in grade in the case of classed teachers would be to give them an undue advantage over other teachers.