SCIENCE TEACHING. 155 



SCIENCE TEACHING AND TECHNICAL 

 INSTRUCTION. 



The facilities for and the supply of Science Teaching and Technical 

 Instruction in Ireland have been, at any rate until recently, so inferior to 

 those existing in England, that a slight historical retrospect is necessar}^ in 

 order to understand the recent changes in this respect in Ireland. The fol-* 

 lowing extract from the Report of the Royal Commission on Technical 

 Instruction, pubHshed in 1884, shows the state of affairs in the early 

 eighties : — 



** Whilst science and art classes, many of them very successful, are to be 

 found in several of the important towns of Ireland, there are scarcely any 

 science classes at work in Dublin. Various reasons were assigfned to us for 

 this state of things, some of them of a kind into which it is not expedient that 

 we should enter. At the same tim.e, there is in Dublin the Royal College of 

 Science, with a staff of competent professors, an admirable technical museum, 

 and laboratories f lirly well equipped for practical work. It appears from the 

 evidence that of the small number of students who follow a complete course of 

 instruction in this institution, about one-half are Englishmen, holders of the 

 Royal Exhibitions of the Science and Art Department, scarcely any of whom 

 become teachers of science in Ireland. There are no short summer courses at 

 the College, like those at the Normal School at South Kensington, for the 

 instruction of science teachers. There are, we are aware, some courses of 

 evening lectures ; but although the laboratories of the College are the only 

 ones in Dublin available for practical evening instruction, such instruction in 

 science and in mechanical drawing forms no part of the arrangements of the 

 College. It appears that by the rules of the Science and Art Department, the 

 professors of the College cannot earn grants on the results of instruction in 

 science, as would be the case if they were ordinary science teachers. We are 

 of opinion that so long as the eftective work of the College in preparing 

 associate students, and more particularly Irish students, is so limited in area 

 as at present, evening classes with practical laboratory work should form part 

 of the regular College courses, and that the remuneration of the professors 

 should depend in part on the success, or at any rate on the regular attendance, 

 of students at such classes 



" We would also remark that we have received evidence of a very contra- 

 dictory nature as to the teaching of science in the Irish Intermediate Schools. 

 We believe, however, that it is engaging the attention of the Board of 

 Intermediate Education, and we only deem it necessary to state in reference 

 to this subject, that efficient instruction in science will not be possible in those 

 schools unless they are provided with proper laboratories, which in most, if 

 not in all of them, are at present entirely wanting. 



"But the most important part of our task with regard to Ireland, is to 

 consider the possibility ot improving the industrial conditions of the poor and 

 remote districts of the West, by means of technical education. 



" By the courtesy of Sir Patrick Keenan, K.C.M.G., the Resident Commis- 

 sioner of National Education in Ireland, your Commissioners have been 



