DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE, Etc., FOR IRELAND. 279 



have already issued new Regulations for these grants because, as they 

 state in a circular letter to the managers and head teachers of secondary 

 schools, they consider that the methods of assessing the grants might 

 with advantage be changed in order to render it more directly appli- 

 cable to existing educational needs in Ireland. In the main, the new 

 Regulations form a scheme of payments, based on the results of in- 

 spection, for instruction in Experimental Science, Drawing, and Manual 

 Work or Household Economy. A detailed programme of study which 

 all schools should follow has not been issued, as the Department are of 

 opinion th.it it is advantageous that the variety of arrangements, made 

 possible by an elastic system of payments, no less than the variety of 

 schools, should lead to variety of programme ; and it is hoped that, in 

 this way, opportunities will be afforded to each school to stamp its 

 individuality on the character of the instruction, and, accordingly, 

 managers will be allowed considerable latitude in modification of 

 details. 



The various local authorities throughout Ireland, both in the county 

 boroughs and elsewhere, have framed in conjunction with the Depart- 

 ment, schemes for the promotion of Technical Instruction, for which, as 

 already noted, one-third of the income of the Department is specifically 

 assigned. The expression " Technical Instruction " includes instruction in 

 the principles of science and art applicable to industries, and in the appli- 

 cation of special branches of science and art to specific industries or employ- 

 ments, as well as instruction in the use of tools, and modelling in clay, wood, 

 or other material, but it does not include instruction given in elementary 

 schools or teaching the practice of any trade or industry or employment. 

 These schemes will no doubt be framed with due regard to the desirabihty 

 of enabling the classes started under them to qualify for these remodelled 

 Science and Art grants, so far as the syllabus of the school coincides with 

 the subjects for which these grants are given, and the sum of ;;^5 5,000 will 

 of course be also supplemented by the Technical Instruction grant men- 

 tioned on pages 160 and 161, as well as by local contributions. A Depart- 

 mental Committee is at present inquiring into the whole subject of the 

 reorganisation of the Royal College of Science, which will carry on the 

 higher scientific and technical instruction, and form, as it were, the apex 

 of the educational structure over which the Department exercises direct 

 control. 



The 23rd section of the Act established a consultative Committee of 

 Education, consisting of the Vice-President of the Department and a repre- 

 sentative of the Commissioners of National Education, the Intermediate 

 Education Board, the Agricultural Board, and the Board of Technical 

 Instruction. This Committee is appointed for the purpose of co-ordinating 

 Irish educational administration. It is unnecessary to dwell on the intimate 

 connection between the different educational interests represented on the 

 Committee. The article on Science Teaching and Technical Instruction in 

 Ireland,* already alluded to, shows how this class of education has been 

 affected by the nature of the Primary and general Secondary education in 

 Ireland. Accordingly, the operations of this Committee are of the greatest 

 importance, and already, as a result of their deliberations, an arrangement 



* See pages 155 — 176. 



