SCIENCE TEACHING. 159 



published in 1896, shows that not much improvement in the facilities pro- 

 vided for Technical Education had been effected in the intervening twelve 

 years since the Royal Commission reported : — 



"There is in Dublhi a Royal College of Science, whose declared object is 

 * to supply, as far as practicable, a complete course of instruction in science 

 applicable to the industrial arts, especially those which may be classed broadly 

 under the heads of — (i) mining-, (2) agricultural, (3) engineering, (4) manufac- 

 tures.' This College is under the Science and Art Department, and is 

 maintained entirely by the Treasury. There is a Technical and Science and 

 Art School in Kevin Street, under the Corporation, managed by a committee 

 and supported by grants from the Corporation, the Science and Art Depart- 

 ment, and the City and Guilds of London Institute. At Ringsend there is a 

 Fishery School, endowed by the Earl of Pembroke, which also receives contri- 

 butions from the Corporation, and the Science and Art Department. There is 

 likewise in Dublin a Metropolitan School of Art under the Science and Art 

 Department. In Belfast a Weaving School, a School of Art, and some working 

 men's classes are partly maintained by the Corporation, and partly by the 

 Science and Art Department and the City and Guilds of London. In Cork 

 there is a School of Art similarly maintained, and at the Christian Brothers' 

 Schools there is a Technical Laboratory, in which some technical instruction is 

 given." 



Since the Recesj Committee reported, some important changes have 

 been effected in the facihties for Science Teaching and Technical Instruc- 

 tion in Ireland. A Vice-Regal Commission was appointed in 1897 to 

 examine into the question of Manual and Practical Instruction in the 

 Primary Schools under the Board of National Education. The Report 

 showed that, whilst it is generally conceded that no technical instruction 

 should be given in primary schools, there was an overwhelming consensus 

 cf opinion that the education given was of too " bookish " a nature, and did 

 not sufficiently provide for that training of hand and eye which is now 

 recognised as of the greatest possible value, not only as an equipment for 

 actual work in after life, but also as in itself an essential part of a complete 

 education. In accordance with the recommendations of the Commission, 

 new regulations have been issued, providing for instruction throughout the 

 six standards in kindergarten methods and manual training, drawing, object 

 lessons, and elementary science, and for girls, needlework, cookery, and 

 laundry work. This instruction, it is obvious, is not intended in any way as 

 technical education. Its object is to train the intelligence and observation, 

 and to produce habits of neatness, dexterity, and carefulness in the National 

 school children, so that when they leave school they will not be — as the 

 Report declares they are at present — " unfit to enter a technical school, even 

 if they had one at their door." Shortly after <his another Commission was 

 appointed in 1898 to inquire into the subject of Intermediate Education m 

 Ireland. One of the recommendations contained in the Report was that a 

 Modern Course should be established, in which science would play an im- 

 portant part, and no doubt these recommendations will have the effect of 

 giving considerable encouragement to science teaching. 



The Science and Art Department plays a large part in encouraging 

 science teaching in England by means of grants av/arded for attendance at 

 a school which conforms to the regulations contained in the Science and 

 Art Directory. At one time Ireland earned its proportionate share of these 

 grants. The first change occurred when, owing to the stress of educational 

 circumstances in England, and notably the opinion that the primary schools 



