ON THE TEACHING OF SCIENCE IN ELEMENTARY SCHOOLS. 493 
in this subject. It is interesting also to know that all children above the 
Second Class go through a course of instruction in Geography. 
Science anp Art DEPARTMENT. 
Although the Code allows mannal instruction to be put on the time- 
table of Elementary Schools it does not provide for any Parliamentary 
grant. The Science and Art Department, however, have resolved to give 
a grant of 6s., or if excellent of 7s., for every scholar, subject to the 
following conditions :— 
‘3. The instruction must be— 
(a) in the use of the ordinary tools used in handicrafts in wood or 
iron ; 
(b) given out of school hours in a properly fitted workshop ; 
(c) connected with the instruction in drawing; that is to say, the 
work must be from drawings to scale previously made by 
the students. 
‘4, The instruction may be given by one of the regular teachers of the 
school if he is sufficiently qualified ; if not, he must be assisted by a skilled 
artisan. 
_ £5, The work of the class will be examined by the local Inspector of 
the Department, accompanied if necessary by an artisan expert, on the 
occasion of his visit to exarnine in drawing. 
‘6. If it appears that the school is properly provided with plant for 
instruction, and that the teaching is fairly good, a grant of 6s., or if excel- 
lent of 7s., will be made for every scholar instructed, provided (a) that he 
has passed the Fourth Standard; (6) that he has received manual instruc- 
tion for at least two hours a week for twenty-two weeks during the school- 
year ; (c) that a special register of attendance is kept; and (d) that each 
scholar on whom payment is claimed isa scholar of the day-school and has 
attended with reasonable regularity. The grant may be reduced or wholly 
withheld at the discretion of the Department, if it appears that the plant 
is insufficient, or that the instruction is not good.’ As, however, the 
provision that this instruction should be given ‘out of school hours’ 
is inconsistent with its being put upon the time-table, and interfered 
seriously with the arrangements for teaching in centres, strong represent- 
ations were made to the authorities, and a new circular was issued, 
stating ‘ that the restriction in Section 3 (b)—that the manual instruction 
shall be given out of school hours—does not prevent this instruction being 
included in the time-table of the school; provided that the time devoted to 
manual instruction by any scholar, for the purposes of the grant from the 
Department of Science and Art, does not include any part of the two con- 
secutive hours of instruction in the subjects of the English and Scotch 
Codes requisite to constitute an attendance ; or of the four hours a day 
secular instruction requisite under the rules of the Commissioners of 
National Education in Ireland.’ This explanation, however, fails to 
remove the difficulties that are felt in practically carrying out this manual 
instruction. 
The Science and Art Department have also issued a circular, stating, 
among other things, that ‘after the examinations this year no pupil on 
the register of an elementary school receiving aid from the English or 
Scotch Education Departments or from the Commissioners of National 
Education in Ireland may be presented for examination by the Depart- 
