THE TEACHING OF SCIENCE IN ELEMENTARY SCHOOLS. 463 



subject is introduced, and indicates the character of the teaching that is 

 deemed desirable. 



The problem of giving some training in the methods of Science 

 Teaching to the 12,.500 teachers in the National Schools is a very difficult 

 one. It is further complicated by the fact that there are over three 

 hundred large and well equipped convent schools conducted by nuns of 

 various religious orders, who would naturally adopt the new subjects of 

 instruction if they were properly trained ; but in the majority of cases 

 the nuns cannot leave the convents to attend the central classes for teachers. 



Training centres have already been established and laboratories 

 equipped in Dublin, Belfast, Cork, Londonderry, Waterford, and Limerick, 

 and some five hundred male and female teachers have been taken through 

 courses of training during the past year. These courses are of two kinds : — 



(a) Day courses, at which the teacher attends every week-day for six 

 weeks, spending about five hours per day in the laboratory. 



(6) Evening courses, at which the teacher attends one or two evenings 

 a week for a period of three hours each evening. 



Travelling expenses and a small maintenance allowance are paid to 

 teachers attending these courses. In addition to the laboratory woi'k, 

 each teacher is expected to produce a satisfactory written record of the 

 practical work performed in the laboratory, ahd the certificate of com- 

 petency to teach is not granted until a satisfactory notebook of the 

 teacher's individual practical work is produced. 



The course of work undertaken in these classes is based on the sugges- 

 tions of the Committee of the British Association, and is similar in 

 character to the old Course Hof the English Code. Through this instruction 

 endeavour is made to impress upon the teachers the importance of the 

 method of scientific inquiry and of habits of accurate work, observation, 

 reasoning, and expression ; in the later stages of the work for Girls' 

 Schools the science underlying domestic economy and hygiene is treated. 



Of the six Training Colleges two give instruction to both men and 

 women, two to women only, and two to men only ; all have during the 

 year provided themselves with laboratories for instruction in Experimental 

 Science, and a most praiseworthy start has been made ; thus nearly nine 

 hundred students in training have received careful laboratory instruction. 

 The average size of these Training College classes is thirty students. A 

 new Training College for women, to be opened next session in Limerick, is 

 also provided with an excellent laboratory. 



The Commissioners have recently decided that the entire Inspection 

 Staff is to undergo a course of training under the Head Organiser, in order 

 to familiarise theiu with the methods the teachers are expected to pursue. 

 A number of Inspectors are already attending these classes. 



In order to facilitate the introduction of subjects of practical and 

 manual instruction into schools in the poorer districts, the Treasury has 

 sanctioned small grants of apparatus to these schools, on the condition 

 that one of the teachers of the school has been through a satisfactory 

 course of training. 



The untimely death of the greatly esteemed Professor G. F. FitzGerald 

 and the retirement from the Board of Commissioners of his Grace the 

 Catholic Archbishop of Dublin (Dr. Walsh) are irrepai-able losses to the 

 cause of true education in Ireland. To the efforts of these two dis- 

 tinguished educationists, both as members of the Commission on Manual 

 and Practical Instruction and as Commissioners of National Education 



