492% REPORT—1890. 
out, that a pupil teacher may gain a Queen’s Scholarship without any 
acquaintance with scientific subjects. This is the more anomalous as 
pupil teachers are very frequently called upon to give object lessons in the 
schools to which they are attached. 
The Code, it is true, gives this encouragement, that marks are given 
at the Queen’s Scholarship Examination to pupil teachers and other candi- 
dates who have passed in one scientific subject at a previous Science and 
Art Examination ; and last year 855 males and 559 females, out of 1,774 
males and 2,453 females, received credit for having passed in some branch 
of science. This is a considerable advance upon previous years ; but still 
it represents barely half of the male, and less than one-fourth of the female, 
teachers. 
ScorLanD. 
Some very important changes have been made in the Scotch Code of this 
year affecting the teaching of science, and apparently in an adverse direc- 
tion. The former regulation, that if any class subjects are taken one 
must be English or Elementary Science, has been abrogated, and now 
teachers are left at liberty to choose any three or less of the recognised 
subjects, which are, English, Geography, History, Needlework for girls, 
Elementary Science. The scheme for this last-named subject, which was 
almost identical with that of the English Code, has been expunged, so far 
as the upper standards are concerned, and a tripartite course is given for 
Elementary Science for Standard IIT. and upwards, in the Animal King- 
dom, the Vegetable Kingdom, and General Physics; and it is recom- 
mended that the three divisions of the subject should be taken in rotation. 
The schedule is given in Appendix II. According to the last report of 
the Committee of Council on Education in Scotland, of 3,113 boys and 
girls’ departments, class subjects were taken in 3,048. Of these, 2,941 
took the joint subject of History and Geography, and 107 took Elementary 
Science ;—a considerably larger proportion than in England and Wales. 
As regards the specific subjects, the whole of the more strictly scien- 
tific subjects—Mechanics, Chemistry, Animal Physiology, the two branches 
of Physics (Light and Heat, Magnetism and Electricity), Physical Geo- 
graphy, and Botany—have been entirely dropped, leaving only Mathe- 
matics, Principles of Agriculture, and Domestic Economy (girls). It is 
true that the Department proposes that ‘instead of specifying a limited 
choice of subjects, with strictly prescribed courses of instruction, we have 
given to school managers the most complete freedom in suggesting subjects 
which they deem suitable to the requirements of their own locality, and 
in drawing up, for approval, schemes under which instruction in these 
subjects may be given ;’ but it remains to be seen whether they will take 
advantage of this liberty, and whether the number of scholars who were 
examined last year in Physical Geography (21,686), and in Animal 
Physiology (7,786), will not be considerably diminished in the fature. 
IRELAND. 
The fifty-sixth Report of the Commissioners of National Education in 
Ireland gives a very interesting account of the practical teaching that is 
introduced into the National Schools of Ireland. There is alarge amount 
of manual instruction, and the rudiments of technical education. The 
teaching of Agriculture is obligatory in country schools for children above 
the Third Class or Standard, and 50,143 out of a possible 183,065 passed 
i eh 
