DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE, Etc., FOR IRELAND. 291 



underestimating the value of the human and ethical parts of education even in 

 the direct production of utilitarian results. The Programme, in its subsequent 

 years, will permit of specialisation according as pupils are intended for various 

 practical callings. Most fortunately for Irish educational reform, the Depart- 

 ment have had the full co-operation of the Board of Intermediate Education in 

 this matter. That Board have adopted the Department's Programme, made 

 it part of their own curriculum for the current year, and resolved to accept the 

 inspection and examination of the Department in the subjects which the Pro- 

 gramme includes. By this means a great impetus will have been given this year 

 to the introduction of practical features into general secondary education, and 

 the way prepared for specialisation at later stages in technical directions. To 

 facilitate the schools in taking up the new programme the Department gave a 

 series of special free courses to teachers, this year, in centres in Dublin, Belfast, 

 and Cork. These courses were attended by teachers from 196 secondary schools. 

 Besides this development of secondary schools, and the promotion of 

 evening continuation schools, to provide for the education of boys whose 

 schooling has been abruptly cut short by their going into employment, the 

 system of the Department will include the establishment, through the medium 

 of existing schools and otherwise, of special Technical Schools for Industries 

 and for Agriculture. In connection with agriculture — apart from the difficulty 

 of getting teachers, which must continue, with diminishing intensity, for a few 

 years, until a supply of expert agricultural teachers has been trained — the 

 organisation of such technical schools presents a comparatively simple 

 problem. Agriculture is a great and living industry, universally pursued in 

 Ireland, and whether these agricultural schools arise in connection with 

 secondary schools or are independently organised — and probably they will 

 appear in both forms — their problem will be to adapt their teaching to the 

 service of the industry which is at their door. Their chief perplexity will be 

 how, with most economy and practical effect, to diversify their work so as to 

 suit the different agricultural conditions of different parts of the country, and 

 the different classes of service, that of the working farmer, that of the agricul- 

 tural scientist, for which knowledge is required. It is otherwise with 

 technical instruction intended for the purposes of industries other than 

 agriculture. Outside the large cities where Technical Instruction schemes are 

 being successfully inaugurated, there are few towns in Ireland where any such 

 industries exist. Moreover, a striking difference, which it is most important 

 to appreciate, thus appears between the problem of technical instruction in 

 Ireland and that problem in Great Britain. In the towns of England and 

 Scotland technical instruction has but to adapt itself to existing and flourishing 

 manufactures. In no locality does any doubt or question arise about the 

 industries to be served. The scheme of technical instruction is called on to 

 provide its pupils with skill and knowledge, mainly imparted in the evening, to 

 be applied to industries which they are working at during the day. In the 

 majority of the provincial towns of Ireland, beyond the artisans connected 

 with the building trades, there are seldom workers enough engaged in any 

 industry to which technical instruction could properly be applied to furnish 

 pupils for a class at a technical school. This somewhat baffling difficulty, 

 which confronts the Department in the organisation of its educational system, 

 it is desirable to have fully realised. It means that part of the problem of 

 technical instruction in such localitites must be, how to promote industries to 

 which it may be applied ; and that, consequently, through exceptional Irish 

 necessities, the Department may be obliged to give more attention to this mode 

 of action than it might otherwise have found it desirable to do. It means, 

 moreover, that, outside the large cities, that phase of technical instruction 

 which approaches more nearly to the direct teaching of trades or handicrafts 



