160 SCIENCE TEACHING. 



were sufficiently catered for by the Education Department and by the local 

 authorities, the standard was raised and, at the same time, the Department 

 cf Science and Art decided to pay in future for first class passes only, and 

 not for second class passes, as had been its practice. As the former dis- 

 tinctions were difficult to obtain, especially in primary schools, the Irish 

 grants decreased, for many of the secondary schools preferred to follow the 

 curriculum of the Intermediate Board (estabhshed in 1878). This course 

 was very generally adopted after 1890, when the endowments of that Board 

 v;ere increased by the residue of the Irish share of the beer and spirit duties, 

 which, in England, were mainly devoted to technical education. The Irish 

 secondary schools now found it much more profitable (from the " results 

 fees " point of view) to follow the " Grammar School " curriculum, favoured 

 by the Intermediate Board, in which science subjects were insufficiently 

 recognised. The late Dr. Preston, the Irish Inspector of the Science and 

 Art Department, in his last report (published June, 1 899), again drew atten- 

 tion to the serious decrease in the number of schools in connection with the 

 Science and Art Department, and in the number of pupils under instruction, 

 as well as in the total amount of the grants earned in science, which, he 

 declared, is likely to continue under existing conditions until science teach- 

 ing becomes practically extinct in Irish schools, a point which he considered 

 was being rapidly approached. The following figures are significant in this 

 respect : — 



In the year 1879-80 the number of students under instruction in England 

 and Wales was 41,384, and the science grants earned were ;i^29,899, whilst 

 the corresponding figures in Ireland were 5,232, and ;^5,079, i.e., Ireland had 

 1 1.2 per cent of the students, and earned 14.5 per cent, of the grants. 



In the year 1889-90 the figures were: England and Wales, 91,246 

 students, and ;^75,684 ; Ireland, 9,531 students, and £7,2^6, i.e., the English 

 students had increased 120.4 P^r cent, and the Irish 82.2 per cent. The 

 grants earned in England had increased 153.1 per cent., and those in Ireland 

 43.4 per cent. The Irish students now formed 9.2 per cent, of the whole, 

 instead of 1 1.2 per cent., and the Irish grants were 8.8 per cent, of the whole 

 instead of 14.5 per cent, as in 1879-80. 



In the year 1897-8 the English and Welsh students amounted to 154,383, 

 and the grants earned to £16^,4.14., while the Irish students numbered 3,787, 

 and the grants were ;^2,io8, i.e., in eight years the number of English and 

 Welsh students increased 66.6 per cent., and their grants 12 1.2 per cent., 

 whilst the number of Irish students decreased 63.7 per cent., and their 

 grants 71.0 per cent. 



Thus, whilst eighteen years ago the Irish students formed 11.2 per cent, 

 of the total number of students, and their grants amounted to 14.5 per cent, 

 of the total grants, the proportions now are only 2.3 per cent, and 1.2 per 

 cent, respectively. 



Art teaching, judged from the same standpoint of grants earned, shows a 

 similar decline in the last two decades, and those other forms of technical 

 instructions which do not form part of the ordinary syllabus of the Science 

 and Art Department, appear to have been similarly neglected. A return 

 dated 19th October, 1899, shows that the total amount of the residue under 

 the Local Taxation (Customs and Excise Act) received by the County 

 Councils in England for the year 1897-8 was ^^"834,826 19^., of which 

 ;;{J"759,400 15.^. 4^. was appropriated to Technical Instruction, in addition to 

 £^64,029 Ss. lod. contributed out of the local rate levied under the Technical 



