§ MR. VINCENT KENNEDY (Cavan, W.)I beg to ask Mr. Attorney-General for Ireland if elementary science, as recommended by the Committee of Manual and Practical Instruction, is about to be discontinued in primary schools with a view to cutting down Treasury expenses; and, if so, what is the actual annual cost of this branch of education, and the amount of the grant to be continued.
§ MR. VINCENT KENNEDYI beg also to ask Mr. Attorney-General for Ireland if, having regard to the fact that there were 8,700 schools and 13,100 teachers to be trained in experimental science, and that as yet only forty per cent. of the teachers are qualified in Part I. and only five per cent. in Parts I. and II. experimental science, owing entirely to the short limit of time allowed and the fewness of the organisers supplied, steps will be taken to carry out the recommendations of the Committee.
§ THE CHIEF SECRETARY FOR IRELAND (Mr. WALTER LONG,) Bristol, S.Perhaps I may be allowed to answer these Questions. The teaching of elementary science will not be discontinued. On the contrary, instruction in this branch is progressing in national schools, and there is no reason to anticipate that it will diminish in the future. The Commissioners of National Education have not applied for a continuance of the service of six sub-organisers of elementary science after the end of the current financial year, and in accordance with an arrangement with the Treasury in the year 1900, the employment of these sub-organisers will accordingly terminate on the 31st inst. But the Treasury have sanctioned permanently the continuance of the services of the head organiser and of two of his assistants, and the grants for service apparatus have also been 462 continued. In answer to the remaining inquiries in the hon. Member's two Questions, I beg to refer him to the published Estimates and to the reply given on the 7th inst.† to the Question of the hon. Member for St. Patrick's Division.