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Maiy, 1907
working scheme for carrying out those principles
on which we are agreed.
The three general principles which Mr. Hannay
lays down as essential to be borne in mind in for-
mulating any scheme of primary education for Ire-
land will be very generally accepted--viz., (I)
“ The right of teaching, and having taught to the
children, the doctrines of the Churches into which
they were baptised, must be secured to the clergy ;
(2) the right of the teachers to the independence
which all self-respecting men enjoy must be secured
to them ;‘ (3)-the right of the people of Ireland to
a controlling voice in the education of their own
children must he insisted on.” With these prin-
ciples the present writer is in hearty sympathy;
but is of opinion, in the scheme put forward by Mr.
Hannay for securing them the first two ,are over-
secured, and the- last insufficiently, VVhile heartily
conceding to the clergy the control of religious
teaching, it does not seem necessary to set up any
other special privileges for them. Mr. Hannay’s
proposal is‘ that the managers, who are mostly
clergymen, should elect a portion of the controlling
county committee, and still retain. the position of
manager or patron, with curtailed but still im-
portant powers, including a veto on appointments
of school teachers. This would no doubt secure
clerical control of religious teaching ; but would it
not secure a great deal more? Would it not, in
fact, leave the priest or the parson nearly as com-
manding a position in the ‘school as he now occu-
pies? To my mind the managership of schools, as
at present constituted, is a usurpation, and cannot
be- allowed to continue, even in an attenuated
form. To give special representation to a body,
who themselselves are not representative, is opposed
g to the principles of democracy and justice.
All reasonable independence should be ‘secured
to the teachers; but it is not necessary for this
purpose to adopt the very unusual principle of hav-
ing the teachers represented on the body that should
control them. The status of the Civil servant is
quoted, and it is a high standard ; but no body of
Civil servant“ in these countries has any repre-
sentation on the boards or bodies that control
them. One notices occasionally in the agitation
that teachers carry on for the improvement of their
position a slight tendency to identify their own
welfare with the welfare of education. In-
deed at sortie of their meetings the managers and
teachers seem to assume that iftheir mutual feelings
and interests are consulted the country ought to be
satisfied. Now it ought to be, clearly home in
mind that teachers are but the instruments forg
carrying out the work of education, and while they
ought to be generously treated as useful public ser-
THE NATIONAL
DEMOCRAT I 53
vants, there is no reason why they should control
education in their own interests. Their expert
knowledge of pedagogy could be utilised by the
employment ofsome of their number as experts and
inspectors.
. It follows that a proposal giving undue privileges
to the clergy and to the teachers would curtail un-
duly the right of the whole people of Ireland to
control the education of their children.
The following counter-proposals for securing the
ends aimed at by Mr. Hannay are respectfully sub-
mitted for criticism and discussion 1-
(I) A controlling board or body nominated by the
General Council of County Councils (or by an Irish
Executive Council when such a Council is set up
on an elective basis). This board to pay salaries,
etc., and to maintain a staff of inspectors to secure
general efficiency of teaching. To have no direct
control over teachers, but to have power to with-
draw money grants from any school condemned for
inefficiency.
(2) A county board consisting of a committee of
the County Council. This body to have power to
employ and dismiss teachers, to sanction programmes
for various schools (on the advice of experts and
subject to modification by central body).
(3) A parish committee of management nomi-
nated by the County Council, to have charge of all
the schools in the parish, and attend to repairs,
lighting, heating, raising money for school prizes,
etc., and to act as a watch committee and an
advisory committee to the central board. judging
by what has happened in regard to Technical Com-
mittees, all the clergy available would be put on
these committees. It is to be hoped that some of
the parents of school-going children would also be
put on them, and thus give some effect to what the
Bishop of Limerick calls the “inalienable rights of
parents ” in regard to education.
Now, to secure the control of clergymen over
religious instruction it is proposed that a clergyman
should be recognised as chaplain or spiritual director
ofeach school, with the right to teach and catechise
at any time not setaside forordinary school work. Also
to require a certain amount of religious instruction
to be given by the teacher or teachers of the school ;
but when the teachers are not deemed satisfactory
an external teacher might be employed. It is to be
noted that one of the cliiefaletects of the present
system is the multiplicity of small, ineffective
schools wh'ch have sprung up to meet sectarian
differences and the desire of clergymen to control
the tca‘h.rrs. These schools should be consolidated,
and arrangements on the lines indicated could be
made for the religious instruction of the children.
‘In reference to arrangements for religious instruc-