§ MR. HAZLETON () Galway, N.I beg to ask the Chief Secretary to the Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland whether his attention has been called to the enforcement 579 of a University standard on intermediate schools in Ireland in contravention of the Education Act, and to the effect of setting such difficult papers upon the practice of cramming; and whether steps will be taken by the Board to modify the mathematical examination papers in future.
§ MR. BIRRELLThe Intermediate Education Board inform me that they have not used the term University standard as descriptive of the quality of their examinations. It may be that some of their advanced examinations are more difficult than the initial examinations of certain Universities, but this would not be a contravention of the Intermediate Education Act. That the standard of their examination papers generally is not too high is, they say, evidenced by the fact that in the intermediate examinations of 1907 the percentage of passes in the various grades averaged over fifty-seven.