1913-4. The Scottish educational system is thus, to-day, strong
and progressive and it maintains its distinctive independence.
But it is a striking evidence of the way in which autonomy tends
to follow similar lines of development, that at no time has there
been so much in common between English, Welsh and Scottish
education as at the present day. Left free, each system develops
its own peculiar spirit and traditions, but it also tends to assimi-
late itself to the standard of other progressive systems.
Education in Ireland. The system of education in Ireland has undergone no such marked development as was seen in England and in Scotland during the years 1910-20. Educational progress in one part of the United Kingdom must always affect the other parts to some extent, and steps have been taken in Ireland as in other parts of the United Kingdom to make better provision for medical inspection, for the care of physically and mentally defective children, and for attending to the feeding of school children. But the condition of affairs has remained far from sat- isfactory in both primary and secondary education, and this is even more the case as regards continuation education.
In Ireland the control of education is divided between three public departments. The Commissioners of National Education deal with primary education, the Intermediate Board with secondary education, and the Department of Agriculture and Technical Instruction, with agricultural and technical education. To a limited extent coordination is secured between the several departments, and the Consultative Committee of Education, on which all three departments are represented, is an evidence of this. But the autonomy of the several departments remains the outstanding fact. Education undoubtedly suffers from this divi- sion of control, and from time to time the question has been considered of uniting the various boards of educational adminis- tration in one system. In Nov. 1919 a comprehensive Education (Ireland) Bill was introduced by the Chief Secretary for Ireland, which among other things proposed to set up a single Depart- ment of Education in Ireland, but it failed to become law. In the past the educational problem has been constantly over- shadowed by political considerations and no effective step has yet been made towards that unity of direction and completeness of supervision which can only be secured either by a single de^ partment or by the closest cooperation and harmony between the separate departments. The difficulties and disabilities arising out of division are further accentuated by the widely different systems represented by the three boards. The Commissioners of National Education who are responsible for the position of pri- mary education in Ireland, and who, therefore, have by far the greatest task placed upon them, represent a centralized and bureaucratic system of administration such as cannot be paral- leled in any other part of the United Kingdom. As primary and secondary education are not matters which have been handed over, as in England and Wales, to the local county and municipal authorities or to local education ad hoc authorities as in Scotland, the only local control rests with the school management of the individual school and the local attendance committees. It fol- lows, so far as primary and intermediate or secondary education are concerned, that there are no local rates. The financial re- sources required for this most important part of national educa- tion have, therefore, to depend upon moneys voted by Parliament, or upon the yield of endowments, contributions, and school fees. The result of this is that, so far as primary and intermediate education in Ireland are concerned, the financial position is most unsatisfactory. The resources for the maintenance, and still more for the improvement, of national education are very inadequate, and the old order has continued to exist at a time when great measures of educational advancement are being carried out in the other parts of the United Kingdom. The day has passed when grants from a central department, supplemented by voluntary contributions, can be equal to the burden of a na- tional system of education, and Ireland is constantly suffering from the fact that she has not faced the responsibility of estab- lishing a system of local education authorities, and of charging the local rates with a share of the burden of primary and inter- mediate education. The problem in Ireland is complicated by
the denominational character of the schools and by the strong element of clerical control in local educational matters. But, if education is to advance, local and lay control must share the burden of responsibility, and developments in England, Wales and Scotland prove that alike the central Department of Admin- istration and the local authorities can find a place in the national system for denominational schools. Until the people of Ireland locally and directly show their zeal for education by securing the establishment of local educational authorities with powers to rate, Irish elementary and secondary education cannot keep pace with the progress which is being made in the sister countries. The question is so fundamental that it must always be in view, as during the past ten years the difficulties inherent in the present system of primary and secondary education have been making themselves increasingly felt. In 1913 a Viceregal Committee of Inquiry into Primary Education was appointed to report upon the system of inspection of primary schools, the relations be- tween teachers and inspectors, and the system of promotion of teachers in national schools, and both the evidence and the re- port illustrate how difficult is the problem of encouraging and remunerating teachers, and of giving scope for educational development where there are no local representative authorities and where promotion depends upon the report of inspectors and the decision of the National Board. Alike in Scotland, England, and Wales experience has proved how necessary it is to have wide areas and to link education closely with the interests of the community. In Irish primary education, the absence of local representative authorities controlling large areas with a wide range of schools accounts for much of the present stagnation of education, and places upon the Central National Board the in- creasingly invidious task of a bureaucratic system. Nor can it be said that there is any effective parliamentary control over Irish primary education. The system is thus constitutionally weak and fails to stimulate alike local interest and national public opinion in the vital question of education.
What is true of primary education in Ireland is also true in respect of intermediate education, though owing to the much more limited number of schools the problem is less acute. One of the most serious aspects, however, of Irish education remains the very inadequate provision which is made for secondary educa- tion, other than agricultural and technical education. The supply of schools, and the financial provisions for such as exist, fall far short of what modern Ireland should have. In Ireland, as in Great Britain, there is an increasing demand for higher education and with the change in the value of money the situation of the secondary schools is especially precarious. In their report for the year 1920 the Intermediate Education Board commented severe- ly on the fact that the grants in aid of Irish secondary education from the Treasury are considerably less than the proper share which should have been allocated for this purpose when compared with the grants in England, Wales, and Scotland, and they con- clude their report with the grave words "... remembering also the scanty funds with which our admittedly successful efforts were achieved, it is difficult for us at this juncture when the whole edifice of secondary education in Ireland is toppling to destruction to refer to these matters in language of moderation and restraint. Of one thing, however, we feel quite certain, and that is, that if something is not done immediately to place Irish secondary education in the position of financial equality with that of Great Britain, it is impossible to see how the complete disrup- tion of the system can be avoided." In one respect improvement has been made in recent years in the work of the Intermediate Education Board, by the belated establishment of a system of local inspection. The Intermediate Board system has been in the past too much a central examining body rather than an educa- tional department, and even with the limited step which has now been taken to secure supervision of the intermediate schools and their work by the board's inspectors, control is largely exercised through the medium of written examinations. Thus both in re- spect of primary and intermediate education, Ireland has pre- sented a very unprogressive form of organization and even with the improvements made in recent years, the system remains very
