290 DEPARTiMENT OF AGRICULTURE, Etc., FOR IRELAND. 



public opinion instructed on economic subjects, all other forms of State action 

 in relation to industry becomes immensely more effectual. For this reason the 

 Department lay stress on the educational work which they have been com- 

 missioned to do in co-operation with the other educational authorities of the 

 country. 



The educational duties of the Department include the administration in 

 Ireland of the Grant for Science and Art (an elastic Parliamentary grant the 

 amount of which depends on how far it is utilised by schools and classes ;) the 

 management of institution's for higher teaching in science and art, amongst 

 them the Royal College of Science, the Metropolitan School of Art, the Botanic 

 Gardens, and the Museum ; and the organisation of a system of technical 

 instruction applied to industries and agriculture. In undertaking these duties 

 the Department will act on the view that the education of a countr}^ should be 

 considered as a whole, and that it is a grievous fallacy to expect sound results 

 from any special scheme which is not made an organic part of the general 

 educational system. The experience of countries which have given most 

 attention to the connection between education and industrial development 

 shows that the best results in this direction are due to the secondary school 

 and the university or higher technical college. When the secondary school, 

 on, at least, one of its "sides," is permeated with the practical spirit, and 

 deliberately related to the real economic and social needs of the country, it 

 becomes possible to produce leaders of industry, that is, men who have learned 

 to apply intellect and science, as well as enterprise, to the callings of com- 

 merce, manufactures, and agriculture ; and when properly-trained leaders of 

 industry are available for a country reforms in all the grades of practical 

 education inevitably follow. Again, that great undeveloped resource, the 

 latent intellect and artistic and mechanical skill of the working classes of the 

 country cannot be rightly got at until the primary schools, rural and urban, 

 fit their pupils to take direct advantage, whether of the general schools or the 

 technical schools of a complete system, with their respective avenues of pro- 

 gression. There cannot be the most useful educational ambition in a country 

 until the pupil of talent in the humblest elementary school feels that the way 

 is open for him, so far as educational opportunities can open it, to the highest 

 careers in industrial, agricultural or academic life. The primary school, the 

 secondary school, and the university are thus regarded as having their part to 

 do for what is commonly called technical education, as well as the specially 

 technical institutions. 



The Department enters the secondary schools of the country, as the 

 administrator of the Science and Art Grant, principally from the point of view 

 of general education, which is the first concern of the secondary school, and 

 secondarily from the point of view of those specialised applications of 

 education to which the secondary school should lead. With these objects in 

 mind it has entirely changed the system on which the Science and Art Grants 

 have hitherto been administered, and rendered these grants, it is hoped, more 

 favourable to freedom and individuality in teaching, and more suitable to 

 Irish conditions. The new Programme of Experimental Science, Drawing, 

 Domestic Economy, and Manual Instruction, which the Department has 

 issued, is intended to provide, in the first two years, the secondary school with 

 that minimum ot scientific discipline and training of the hand and eye which 

 educationists now generally hold should be a part of any broadly-conceived 

 scheme of general education. This minimum, it is believed, may be given 

 without injury to the essential function of the humanities in the curriculum of 

 every secondary school. The Department do not desire that Ireland, at this 

 period of transition in her educational history, should fall into the mistake 

 which, it is beginning to be recognised, has been committed elsewhere, of 



