§ Mr. FRANCIS MEEHANasked the President of the Board of Education whether he is aware that the Commissioners of National Education have proposed to close the schools in Largy and Tully, Killasnet, county Leitrim, and build one school instead; and whether, having regard to the inconvenience which would be caused to the children of the district and the fact that both schools have maintained a high standard and fair average attendance, and that the parents of the children have petitioned against such a change, the schools will be allowed to remain as they are?
§ Mr. BIRRELLThe Commissioners of National Education inform me that the schools referred to are probably Leckanerainey and Largy national schools, county Leitrim. Neither school is satisfactory as regards repair or accomodation, and the Leckanerainey school house has been described by the inspector as quite unsuitable for school purposes. The average attendance at the Leckanerainey school for the year ended 31st December, 1912, was only seventeen, and at Largy school for the same period it was thirty-nine. In 1909 the attention of the manager was directed to the unsuitableness of the schoolhouses, and the erection of a central school to replace both was suggested to2058W him. No protest against the proposed change by the parents of the children has been received by the Commissioners, and the manager has expressed his assent to the proposed arrangement. He has now obtained a suitable site midway between the two schools, which are only one and three-quarter miles apart by road, and the Commissioners await his application for a Grant towards the cost of the erection of the new schoolhouse.