§ MR. FLYNNI beg to ask the Chief Secretary to the Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland whether it is the intention of the Commissioners of National Education in Ireland to enforce Rule 127 (b) as given in the revised edition of 1905; and whether, in view of the disapproval of the proposed rule expressed by managers and teachers and to the probable effect of such in replacing trained male teachers by women teachers, he will order its withdrawal.
§ MR. WALTER LONGThe rule has not yet come into operation. It has been made solely in the interests of children under eight years of age, and the necessity for such a rule was emphasised in Mr. Dale's Report on primary education. At their meeting held on Tuesday last the Commissioners adopted a resolution defining a "suitable" school to mean a school in which there is adequate accommodation of a satisfactory kind, in which the teaching of infants is efficient, and in which the teaching staff is of the same religious denomination as in the neighbouring boys' school. The Commissioners further decided that in any case in which the enforcement of the rule would lead to the loss of an assistant teacher, such case will be specially considered on the application of the manager, and that boys over seven years of age who are fit to be enrolled in the 2nd Standard may be transferred to a boys' school.