Rutland weekly herald. [volume] (Rutland, Vt.) 1859-1877, 1872-10-18
Education In Ireland.

The commissioners of national education In
Ireland have just issued their report, and if
the national school system in Ireland can be
estimated merely by the number of children
on the rolls, according to the method Of emu
meration officially adopted, then its success
may be said to be great The commissioners
consider, in the first place, the change that
has been wrought in the interest felt by the
Irish in educational matters between the
years 1861 and 1871, In 1861 the popula-
ton of Ireland, we are told, was found to
be 5,799 900, and the children on the nation
al school rolls 500, 364 in 1871 the popula-
ton had declined, being then only 5 ,403, 900,
but the enrolled children had increased as
much as % per cent. they were enumera-
ted as 2,02l 700; in 1861 II per cent, or
very nearly one in seven Of the population,
was-on the school roll in 1871 the ratio
had risen to 10 per cent, or nearly to one in
five of the population. The commissioners
thus strongly mark the progress made. But
the average number of children under daily
| instruction and the number of children on
the rolls are two and entirely different things.
The average attendance in 1871, we are in
| formed, was 1868 $50, or little more than one
third of the children enrolled. The commits
sioners admit, however, that their system OF
enrolment has tendency to exaggerate the
score somewhat.
Taking the four provinces of Ireland, we
find that in Munster the average daily at
| tendances are 40 per cent. on the enrollments;
| in Connaught they only amount to 81 per
| cent; the averages in Ulster and Leinster
being between the two. Considerable care il
taken by the commissioners to show the re-
| ligious persuasion of both scholars and
teachers Roman Catholic pupils are more
than four fold those of all the other denOmi-
nations put together, and even in Ulster, the
province in which Professionalism holds the
greatest sway in ireland. the Roman Catholic
| pupils outnumber all the scholars Of other
| denominations. The question Of a national
system Of elementary education has been 50
far successfully grappled with that we FIND
that no less than 394S out Of G9l4, or con.
siderably more than one-half the schools, ara
mixed schools, where Protestant and Roman
| Catholic children mingle. The majority o.
these s0-called - mixed" schools are under
Roman Catholic teachers; more than one
| fourth of them are under Protestant teacher
exclusively.
1t is a noticeable fact that, using round
numbers, q 900 Protestant children are IN
der Roman Catholic teachers, and o, 0Ol
Roman Catholic children are under PrOteS
tant teachers; and that in the schools where
the teachers belong to the two denominations
the number of children i not very unequal
" divided, the majority being Protestant
Mixed schools show the largest percentage il
Protestant Ulster; the smallest in Munster
in the latter province the proportion not be
| ING one-half what it Is in the former. II
what numbers the Protestant and the Roman
Catholic children frequent the different mixed
schools is exhibited by the following synop
sis (a.) Roman Catholic teachers exclusive
", instructing % 1868 Protestant and 3G4,
347 Roman Catholic pupils. o. Protes
tant teachers exclusively, instructinG 1875,
785 Protestant and 1888 Roman Catholic
pupils. (c) Protestant and Roman Catholic
teachers conformity, instructing Il, 1877 Pro
testant and 2.1l9 Roman Catholic pupils.