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Dáil Éireann debate -
Friday, 28 Oct 1932

Vol. 44 No. 6

Vote 45—Office of the Minister for Education (Resumed).

Táthar sásta leis an obair atáthar a dhéanamh ins na MeánScoltacha.

Trí chéad (300) líon na scoltach a bhí ag obair faoi Bhrainnse an MheánOideachais ins an bhliadhain 1930-31, agus is ionann sin agus 6 scoil sa bhreis ar uimhir na bliadhna roimh ré. Is é sin an méadú is mó in aon bhliadhain amháin ó cuireadh an Roinn ar bun. Bhí 1,349 de bhiseach ins an tinnreamh, agus is é sin é an biseach tinnrimh is mó dá dtáinig i mbliadhain ar bith ar na mallaibh. I dtaoibh na scoltach a raibh an Ghaedhilg i bhféidhm mar gnáth-theangaidh teagaisg ionnta bhí 3 scoltacha sa bhreis ar líon na bliadhna roimh ré agus bhí 4 scoltacha sa bhreis in ár teagascadh cuid de na hábhair, tríd an Ghaedhilg. Tá a thuilleadh socruighthe déanta ag an Roinn le cuidiú le scoltacha Gaedhilge agus le scoltacha Dhá-Theangthacha a chur chun cinn.

(a) Riaradh le n-ar féidir scoil Ghaedhilge (Roinn A) a dhéanamh de pháirt de Mheán-Scoil ar bith atá ar bun faoi láthair, ach amháin go mbéidh oiread dáltaí ag freastal na scoile sin agus gur fiú an costas an riaradh seo a chur i bhféidhm innte. Is é an fáth a ndearnadh an socrú seo le súil gó réidhteóchadh sé an bealach do lucht stiúrtha MeánScoil ar mhian leo féidhim a bhaint as an nGaedhilg mar ghléas teagaise, ach nár éirigh leo sin a dhéanamh cheana, de bhrigh go rabh cuid de na daltaí nárbh fhéidir leo an sochar ceart a bhaint as a leithéid sin de theagasc.

(b) Ráta na ndeóntaisí a árdú i geásanna áirithe.

(c) Deóntas sa bhreis d'íoc le scoltacha beaga i gcásanna fá leith; agus

(d) Breis spéisialta páighe do thabhairt do mhúinteoirí a dhéanfas na h-ábhair léighinn a theagasc thríd an nGaedhilg.

Tá áthas orm a rádh nach é amháin go dtáinig méadú ar líon na scoltach agus ar líon na ndaltaí, ach go dtáinig feabhas ar obair na scoltach ina chuideachta sin. Ní h-é amháin gur mhéaduigh líon na n-iarratóir i gcoitchinne, ach ins an Scrúdú deir-eannach le haghaidh Teistiméireacht leanadh do'n árdú buan a bhí ag teacht ins an méid faoi'n gcéad de phasanna agus de phasanna le honóracha a ghnóthuighthear ins na scrúduighthe sin. An uimhir fá'n gcéad de iarratóirí a gheibh Onóracha, tá sí anois i bhfoisceacht do bheith dhá uair comh mór agus bhí sí sa bhliadhan 1925, an chéad bhliadhain ar bunuigheadh na scrúduighthe ar an Chlár Nua. Is tábhachtach an fhiadhnaise í seo ar an dóigh a ndeachaidh na scoltacha ar aghaidh dá gcur féin in oireamhaint don obair faoi an nua-riaradh. Gidh go bhfuiltear sásta i gcoitchinne leis an gClár Nua, feictear dúinn go bhféadfaidhe a thuilleadh saoirse a cheadú ann, agus gan a luachmhair-eacht a laghdú. Dá bhrigh sin tá sé de rún ag an Roinn Ard-Chúrsaí agus Bun-Chúrsaí a leagan amach in ábhair Matamaitice agus in ábhair a bhaineas le teangthacha. Táthar ag súil go geuirfear suim i stuideár na Matamai-tice i scoltacha na gcailín de bhárr an Bhun-Chúrsa ins an ábhar léighinn sin; agus de bhárr an Bhun-Chúrsa ins na Nua-Theangthacha go gcuirfear breis suime i léightheóracht Frainncíse agus Gearmánaise ins na scoltacha in nach féidir am go leor a fhagháil le haghaidh an lán-chúrsa atá ann fá láthair. I dtaoibh an Bhun-Chúrsa i Mata-maitice do scoltacha na gcailín, agus an Árd-Chúrsa agus an Bhun-Chúrsa i nGaedhilg agus i mBéarla, táthar ag súil le n-a gcur i bhféidhm, an scoil-bhliadhain seo chugainn. Agus táthar ag súil leis na Bhun-Chúrsaí i bhFrainncís agus i nGearmánais a chur i bhféidhm ins an bhliadhain 1933-34.

I dteannta an fháis a tháinig ins na bliadhanta deireannacha seo ar líon na scoltach agus na mac léighinn, tá fás dá réir sa mhéid airgid a caithtear ar Mheán-Oideachas, go h-áithrid maidir le Deóntaisí Cionn-tsraithe (Capitation Grants) agus deóntaisí eile. Tá an caiteachas nó an costas iomlán (lasmuich de chostas Riaracháin, Cigireachta, clódórachta agus Páipéarachais) le haghaidh na bliadhna airgeadais seo caithte (dar críoch 31adh Márta, 1932), tá sé £17,000 níos mó ná an costas a bhí ann le haghaidh na bliadhna roimhe sin. Do réir na gcuntaisí a fuarthas ó na scoltacha i dtús na scoil-bhliadhna 1931-32, bhí an fás in uimhir na scoltacha agus na mac léighinn ag gabháil ar aghaidh. Is dóiche mar sin de, má's mian leanamhaint de na deóntaisí ar an tsean-leagan go mbéidh árdú eile £20,000 nó mar sin, ar chostas Meán-Oideachais le h-agh-aidh na bliadhna airgeadais 1932-33. Cé bith sin, bhí sé riachtanach laghdú a dhéanamh ar chúrsaí airgeadais i gcoitchinne, agus mar sin de bhí sé de riachtanas fuagradh a thabhairt do na scoltacha go laghdóch-aidhe deóntaisí Ceann-tsraithe agus deóntaisí Saotharlainne (Laboratory) na scoil-bhliadhna 1931-32 fá dheich sa chéad (10%), agus go measfaidhe deóntaisí na scoltach Gaedhilge agus deóntaisí na scoltach Dhá-Theang-thach atá bunuighthe ar an deóntas Ceann-tsraithe, go measfaidhe iad sin de réir méid laghduighthe an deóntais Ceann-tsraithe.

I dtaobh fóirneacha na scoltach bhí 2,643 oidí ag obair ins an scoil-bhliadh-ain 1930-31, agus b'ionann sin agus 92 sa bhreis, nó 3.6% sa bhreis, ar uimhir na bliadhna roimh ré. Bhí 1,491 de mhúinteoirí cláruighthe ag obair—16 sa bhreis, nó 1.1%.

Taisbeánann na figiúirí sin, gidh gurb oth linn a rádh, go rabh líon na múinteóir cláruighthe beagán níos lugha ná mar bhí sé ins an bhliadhain roimhe sin. B'fheairrde, de thaoibh oideachais, go mbéadh níos mó de oidí cláruighthe ar fhóirneacha na scoltach.

Ach tá méadú ag teacht ar líon na múinteóir atá ag tarraingt Páighe Breise (Incremental Salary). Tá siad anois 81.1% de iomlán na múinteóirí cláruighthe. 80.5% a bhí siad ann ins an bhliadhain 1929-30, agus 78.7% ins an bhliadhain 1928-29. Tá áthas orm go bhfuil laghdú ag teacht bliadhain ar bhliadhain ar líon na múinteóirí a gheobhadh páighe ón Stát ach munab é go bhfuil siad de bharraidheacht ar na fóirne atá ceaduighthe do na scoltacha a bhfuil siad ag obair ionnta.

Maidir le pinseanna Múinteóirí na Meán-Scol tá an Scéim i dtaobh Aois-liúntaisí do Mhúinteóirí Meán-scoile i bhfeidhm ón chéad lá de Lughnasa, 1929, agus sé'n méid pinseann a deonadh go dtí an 31adh lá de Mhárta anuraidh 53 pinseanna maraon le 4 cinn a deonadh mar gheall ar dhroch-shláinte. Tá beagnach 1,300 múin-teóirí cláruithe ag obair i Meán-Scoileanna agus díobh seo tagann timcheall's 460 faoi'n Scéim. Múin-teóirí tuatha seadh beagnach 90% de sna baill.

Ní raibh cuid de na hiarrathóirí ionghlactha faoi'n scéim mar gheall ar gur theip ortha ceann amháin nó níos mó de sna coinníollacha a ceapadh a chólíonadh. Do theip ar an gcuid is mó aca seo i ngeall ar nár chólíon siad an coinníol a d'éiligh—

(a) gur ghádh, i gcás iarrathóir a bhí ós cionn 30 mbliana d'aois an chéad lá de Lughnasa, 1929, nár lugha an tseirbhís cheaduithe mhúinteoir-eachta a bhí aige ná dhá dtrian de bhreis na haoise a bhí aige an t-am sin ar 25 bliana, agus

(b) i gcás iarrathóir a bhí ós cionn 50 bliain d'aois ar an gcéad lá de Lughnasa, 1929, go mbeadh ar a sheirbhís cheaduithe seacht mbliana ar a laighead de sna deich mbliana díreach roimh an dáta san.

Do breathnuigheadh isteach in sna cásanna seo go cúramach agus táthar tar éis Scéim Leasúcháin d'ullamhú le hí do chur faoi bhrághaid an Oireach-tais agus leiseochaidh an scéim seo cruadhtan mór ar bith a tháinig de bhárr na coinníollacha atá luaidhte a chur i bhfeidhm.

Maidir le tuilleadh bun-oideachais a thabhairt do dhaoine óga na Gael-tachta ar fhágáil na mbun-scoil dóibh (Post Primary Education), tá an gnó san freisin dá bhreithniú againn. Tá neithe ar siubhal cheana i bhfuirm scéim Scoláireachtaí, a dhéanfaidh, tá súil againn, tairbhe mhór don Fhíor-Ghaeltacht agus a cuirfeas i gcumas do roinnt mac léighinn oideachas níos aoirde d'fhagháil. Ní ceadmhach cur isteach ar na Scoláireachta seo d'aoinne ach do leanbhaí a tógadh ins na ceanntracha mar a bhfuil an Ghaedhilg 'na gnáth-theangaidh ag furmhór na ndaoine, a bhfuil an Ghaedhilg ina gnáth-theangaidh ins na tighthe a bhfuil siad ina gcomhnuidhe, agus, fós, a fuair a gcuid oideachais tré mheadhon na Gaedhilge féin. Dhá scéim scoláireachta atá ann le haghaidh na mac léighinn sin (1) chun Meán-Oideachas tré Ghaedhilg a sholáthar in aisce dhóibh agus (2) chun cúrsa iomlán in Aon Ghné léighinn a chur ar fagháil dóibh san Iolscoil. Mar aon leis na neithe sin tá socruithe nua déanta chun cúrsaí "roimh ré" do sholáthar do leanbhaí ón Ghaeltacht agus chun roinnt ionad i gColáistí Ullmhúcháin a chur ar leith dóibh gach bliadhain.

Bronnfar ocht gcinn déag (18) de Scoláireachtaí Meán-Scoile ar iarrath-óirí ón bhFíor-Ghaeltacht gach bliadhain, agus mairfidh gach scoláireacht aca sin ar feadh cheithre mbliadhan, agus cuid aca ar feadh chúig mbliadhan, má mheastar sin bheith riachtanach. De na 18 scoláir-eachtaí sin ní bhronnfar níos lugha ná 9 gcinn ar chailíní agus, gan briseadh ar an gcoingheall coscaithe sin, cuirfear uimhir áirithe Scoláireachtaí i leith iarrathóirí ó gach príomh-cheanntar den Fhíor-Ghaeltacht. Ar an gcuma seo tá beartuithe againn buaidh a fhagháil ar an easbhaidh bun-léighinn a d'fhéadfadh bheith ar dhaoine óga ó'n Ghaeltacht—easbhaidh a thiocfadh de staid economiceach na n-áiteach atá i gceist, agus a d'fhágfadh deacracht ar leith ar na daoine óga a sciar féin a fhagháil de na scoláireachta.

Ar feadh sé seilbhe na Scoláireachta íocfaidh an Roinn Oideachais na táille scoile, agus ionnus nach mbac-faidh beag-ghustail a mhuinntire do aon mhac léighinn Scoláireacht a ghnóthú bhéarfar deóntas le haghaidh gléas éadaigh, costaisí taistil, etc., i dtrí coda gach bliadhain don mhac léighinn tré láimh stiúrthóirí na scoile. Tá soláthar freisin dá dhéanamh chun congnamh airgid le haghaidh costaisí tinnrimh ar an scrúdúchán a íoc le gacha iarrathóir go mbéidh tuar fóghantachta ina chuid freagraí agus chun duais a thabhairt d'oide na scoile ó n-a dtiocfaidh gach iarrathóir go n-éireóchaidh leis. Ba chóir go dtiocfadh de gach áis díobh san go raghadh feabhas ar an oideachas ins na ceanntrachaibh Gaedhealacha, lasmuich den tairbhe thiocfadh uatha do na mic léighinn féin a n-éireóchadh leo.

Nuair bhéidh an cúrsa Meán-Oideachais thart beidh caoi ag mac léighinn ag a bhfuil Scoláireachtaí dul ag iomaidheacht ar son Scoláireachtaí atá ceaptha ins an Iolscoil ag an Rialtas do mhic léighinn as an bhFíor-Ghaeltacht, i bhfochair na Scoláireachtaí sin atá ceaptha san Iolscoil ag na Comhairlí Conndae. Agus fairis sin béidh cead ag cailíní ag a bhfuil Scoláireachtaí dul ag iomaidheacht ar son uimhir fá leith de shaor-ionadaibh i gColáiste Ullmhúcháin ina múintear Obair Tighis. Dá bhrígh sin, ní ion-choimeádta Meán-Scoláireachtaí do chailíní ach i scoltachaí Roinn A amháin, sé sin, scoltachaí ina múintear Obair Tighis agus Ealadha, ar feadh a gcúrsa go hiomlán.

Foillsigheadh tuairisc ar na Scol-aireachtaí sin o samhradh na bliadhna 1931, agus i dtreo go gcuirfí an Scéim i bhfeidhm gan mhoill do toghadh seisear cailíní gur éirigh leó ins an scrúdú i gcóir Coláistí Ullmhúcháin, ach nár éirigh leó glaodhach fhagháil chun aon choláiste, agus do thosnuigh-eadar ar a gcúrsa Meán-Oideachais i Meadhon-Foghmhair, 1931.

Níl Scoláireachtaí sin na Iolscoile atá ceaptha do mhie léighinn ón nGaeltacht, níl siad in mo vóta-sa mar is é Aire an Airgid a bhronnas iad ar mholadh Aire an Oideachais. Ní bhéidh na Scoláireachtaí seo ion-ghnothuighthe ach ag iarrthóirí a tógadh san bhFíor-Ghaeltacht, mar tá leagtha amach cheana; agus caithfidh siad sin scrúdú na hArd-Teistiméir-eacht bheith gnóthuighthe le hOnóracha aca. Is do Choláiste na hOllscoile i nGaillimh atá na Scoláireachtaí sin uile ceaptha, sé sin, má bhíonn an cúrsa atá ag teastáil ón mac léighinn le fhagáil aige ins an Choláiste sin. £110 sa bhliadhain luach gach scoláireacht díobh. Iocfar £20 de sin nuair bronn-far an scoláireacht ar an mac léighinn; agus íocfar an chuid eile ina dhíolaidh-eachtaí ó am go ham, tré lucht ceannais na Iolscoile. Is féidir na Scol-áireachtaí d'ath-bhronnadh ó bhliadhain go bliadhain go dtí go mbeidh tamall réasúnta fachta ag an mac léighinn chun a chéim do gnóthú.

Táthar ag súil go ndéanfaí an comh-cheangal seo idir Scoláireachtaí Meán-Scoile agus Iol-scoile le haghaidh mac léighinn ón Ghaeltacht i dteannta na scoláireachtaí don Ghaeltacht féin a bhronnas Coláiste na hIol-scoile i nGaillimh, go ndéanfaidh sé a chur in áirithe go mbéidh neart de chainnteoirí dúthchais a mbeidh oideachas maith ortha ar fagháil le haghaidh múinteoireachta i meán-scol-tacha, agus i gceárd-scoltacha, etc. (Post Primary Schools.)

Maidir leis an nGaedhilg sna Meán-Scoileanna tá eolas maith nó cuibhea-sach maith ar an nGaedhilg ag an gcuid is mó de na daoine atá ghá múineadh ins na meán-sgoileanna fá láthair, agus tá daoine ortha go mba dheacair iad do shárú in eólas ar an dteangain, i ndúthracht oibre, nó i gclisteacht múinteóireachta. Tá feabhas ag dul ar mhúineadh na litridheachta agus na filidheachta in aghaidh na bliadhna, agus léigheann na sgoláirí de ghnáth níos mó leabhra ná mar a dheinidís. Ní hannamh anois cnuasach maith de leabhraibh Gaedhilge ar fagháil i leabharlainn sgoile agus leas dá bhaint asta ag na daltaí.

Ar a shon san is uile, ní misde tagairt do roinnt neithe atá ag baint de thairbhe an teagaisg.

(i) Níl ach fir-bheagán de sna múin-teoirí ina geainnteoirí dúthchais, agus tá cuid mhaith de na múin-teoirí eile ná bíonn de thaithighe aca ar labhairt na teangan ach an méid a labhraid leis na ranganna sgoile, agus ná faghann aon chaoi ar dhul don Ghaeltacht ná ar bheith ag éisteacht le cainnteoirí maithe. Ní hiongnadh an easbhaidh taithighe bheith ag cur meath is meirg i ndiaidh a chéile ar an nGaedhilg ag a lán de na múinteoirí, go mór mhór ar an urlabhra, agus an fhoghrui-dheacht do bheith lochtach is neamh-chruinn aca i ndeire na dála. Na daoine a bhfuil an sgéal mar sin-aca gheobhaidís a bheag nó a mhór de chabhair fhagháil ó sna ceirníní gramafóin nó ó bheith ag éisteacht leis an gcraobhsgaoileachán.

(ii) Deabhruigheann an sgeál go bhfuil cuid maith múinteóirí óga ag teacht amach as na hIolsgoileanna, céimeanna sa Ghaedhilg—go fiú Céimeanna Onóracha—bainte amach aca, agus gan an cumas comhráidh ná an líomhthacht cainnte aca a chuirfeadh ar a n-acfuinn labhairt na teangan do mhúineadh go ceart. Ní bhíonn fuaimeanna na Gaedhilge sáthach cruinn aca agus tá de chos-mhalacht ar chuid aca nach mór an cleachtadh a rinneadar ar labhairt na teangan le linn dóibh bheith san Iolsgoil. Ina fhochair sin, ní bhíonn mórán léighte aca taobh amuigh den mhéid atá riachtanach i gcóir na sgrúduithe Iolsgoile, agus tagann de sin go dteipeann ortha suim is spéis i Litridheacht na Gaedhilge do mhús-gailt ins na daltaí a bhíonn fá na gcúram.

(iii) Is mion minic a cloistear gearáin i dtaobh a laighead Gaedhilge a bhíonn ag na daltaí óga ag teacht isteach ins na meán - sgoileanna dhóibh. Ba ghnáth a mhilleán san do leagadh ar na sgoileanna priomháid-eacha ná baineann leis an Roinn Oideachais. Ach de bhrígh go bhfuil breis is deich n-oiread sgoláirí ar na meán-sgoileanna is tá ar na sgoileanna príomháideacha san is léir nár cheart ach cuid bheag den mhilleán do chur ortha siúd. Is fíor, ach go háirithe, go bhféadfí abhfad níos mó a dhéanamh ar son na Gaedhilge ins na meán-sgoileanna, dá mbéadh an t-eolas ceart ar an dteangain agus an taithighe cheart ar a labhairt ag na daltaí óga ag teacht isteach dóibh.

Tá líon na sgol ina ndeintar an teagasg go léir tré Ghaedhilg ag síor-dhul i méid, agus do réir mar a bhíonn na téacs-leabhra ag dul in iomadamhlacht agus na sgoileanna féin ag dul i dtaithighe na hoibre tá bárr feabhasa ag teacht ar thoradh a saothair. 'Sé an ní is mó atá ag cur cúl ar an obair i mórán áiteanna ná ganntanas múinteoirí. Má tá ag méadú i ndiaidh a chéile ar uimhir na múinteóirí atá lán-oilte ar teagasg do thabhairt tré Ghaedhilg, is mire go mór atá ag méadú ar an gcall atá leo. Cailíní atá ábalta ar Mhata-maitice nó éoluidheacht do mhúineadh tré Ghaedhilg, is iad is mó atá i n-easnamh.

Ceárd Oideachas: Maidir le Ceárd-Oideachas agus le Dán-Oideachas i gcoitchinne táthar ag súil go gcuirfidh an tAcht Oideachais Gairme Beatha, 1930, tús ar ré úr.

Tháinig na chéad scéimeanna faoi'n Acht Oideachais Gairme Beatha i bhfeidhm ar an chéad lá de Mheadhon Foghmhair, 1931. Tá sé ró-luath fós a rádh cionnas a d'éirigh leis. Ach do réir na dtuairiscí tá roinnt mhaith déagh-oibre dá déanamh ina lán áiteanna. Ach ní féidir toradh iomlán scéim nuadh Oideachais do mheas go ceann roinnt bliadhan.

Faoi na scéimeanna nuadha tá breis airgid le fagháil ag na Coistí ón Stát nó ó na Coistí Aitiúla ina bhfuilid ag obair. Meastar go gcaithfidh na Coistí beagnach £300,000 i rith na bliadhna airgeadais seo ar Dhán-Oideachas.

Bíonn méadú an Deóntais ón Stát ag brath ar an méadú airgid a gheibh-tear ón gCoiste Aitiúil, sé sin, an Deontas is féidir leis an gCoiste Áitiúil d'fhagháil taobh istigh de na teoranta atá leagtha síos. Fuair 23 coistí as 38 coistí an méadú airgid sin ó n-a gCoistí Aitiúla féin.

Tá na Coistí ag caitheamh an bhreis airgid atá aca ar dhá phríomh-chuspóir mar leanas:—

(a) chun tuilleadh múinteoirí lán-aimsire agus páirtaimsire do sholáthar, agus

(b) chun slighe níos feárr agus níos fairsinge do sholáthar do na scoláirí.

Maidir le fóirne múinteóireachta, d'oileadh 76 oidí sa bhreis mar oidí lán-aimsire chun teacht suas le leath-anú na Scéimeanna agus leis an bpráidhinn atá le oidí nuadha do sholáthar, mar tá:—

20 Oide in Obair Adhmaid agus in Obair Tógáil Tighthe.

16 Oide in Obair Miotail agus in Innealtóireacht Gluaisteán.

21 Oide i gcóir Banachais Tighe (Domestic Economy).

19 Oide i dTuath-eóluíocht.

Bhí deireadh le tréimhse oiliúna na n-oidí sin i Mí na Nodlag seo caithte, agus is beag nach bhfuil gach duine díobh fostaithe faoi na Coistí.

Tá sé beartuithe cúrsa eile in Obair Láimhe (Manual Training) do chur ar bun do oidí chun teagasc do thabhairt sa Ghaeltacht mar a bhfuil an-éileamh ar theagasc de'n chineál san. Tosnó-char ar an gCúrsa i Meadhon Fogh-mhair 1932 agus Gaedhilgeoirí amháin a leigfear chun an chúrsa. Chuige sin, tá £1,000 curtha in áirithe ins na Meastacháin.

Do soláthruigheadh breis oiliúna i rith na bliadhna do 70 múinteoirí Ghaedilge d'fhonn an méid teagaisc d'fhéadfaidís a thabhairt fé na Scéimeanna Gairme Beatha do leathanú.

Maidir le hAruis Scoile tá tosnuigthe dáiriribh ag na Coistí nuadha ar an mbreis slighe go bhfuil dian-ghádh léi ina lán áiteanna ar fud na tíre do sholáthar. Tá cuid mhór (43) scéimeanna chun scoileanna do thógaint, fé bhrághaid na Roinne i láthair na huaire. Tá lán-fheidhm dá bhaint as Alt 50 agus as Alt 51 den Acht Oideachais Gairme Beatha a thugann comhacht d'Ughdaráis Aitiúla (Local Authorities) mar aon leis na Coistí, chun airgead d'fhagháil ar iasacht d'fhonn tighthe scoile do thógaint.

Níl aon laghdú ar an tinnreamh ar na Ranganna faoi na Scéimeanna Gairme Beatha. Tá beagnach 50,000 ag déanamh freastail ar na ranganna san fá láthair. Is mór an bhreis é sin ar an méid a bhíodh ag freastal ortha sna chéad bhliadhanta.

Táthar ag súil go ndéanfaidh an bhreis múinteoirí a bhí ag obair ó Mheadhon Fhoghmhair seo chuaidh thart, go ndéanfaidh sin líon an tinnrimh do mhéadú le haghaidh na bliadhna seo agus le haghaidh na mbliadhanta atá le theacht.

Scrúdúcháin sna Ceárd-Scoileanna.

Níl sé d'fhiachaibh ar aoinne dul faoi na scrúdúcháin sin. Is maith an comhartha é nach bhfuil aon laghdú ar uimhir na n-iarrathóirí.

Scéimeanna Oideachais Gairme Beatha.

Tá éifeachtálacht an teagaisc atáthar a thabhairt faoi Scéim an Dán-Oideachais go maith agus tá sé ag dul i bhfeabhas in aghaidh an lae. I gcomórtas leis an sórt teagaisc a tug-taí deich mbliana ó shoin ceapfaí go raibh an teagasc sin go rí-mhaith ach, leis an dul-chun-cinn atá déanta le hoidí d'oiliúint agus le gnóthaí áiti-úla do riaradh, tá feabhas tagtha ar an sgéal ó gach taobh; agus le linn bheith ag meas na hoibre is é rud a bítear ag súil leis an bhfeabhas sin agus bíonn an gnáth-chaighdeán árduithe.

Le míniu a thabhairt ar an gciall atá le héifeachtúlacht mhaith ní mór breathnú ar na saghasanna sonnrácha Ceárd-Oideachais agus Dán-Oideachais a bhíos ar siubhal faoi chúram Coistí Dán-Oideachais. Is féidir, go generálta, na hábhair a teagasctar do roinnt mar leanas:—

1. Abhair Innealtóireachta — ar a n-áidmhítear Innealtóireachta Aibhléise, Innealtóireachta Gluaisteán, Cleachtadh in Oibriú Miotail, Gléas-radh Talmhaíochta a Dheisiú, Matamaitic Cleachtach agus Líníocht Inneall.

2. Abhair a bhaineas le Ceárd Foirgnimh ar a n-airmhítear Cear-pantóireacht agus Siúinéireacht, Déantús Ceabinéid, Obair Adhmaid, Saor-Líníocht agus Líníocht Inneall, agus Matamaitic Cleachtach.

3. Abhair Tighis—ar a n-áirmhítear Cócaireacht, Obair Shnáthaide, Nigheachán, Maintiméireacht, Bana-chas Tighe, Sláinte-eolas agus Céad-Chabhair (Léighis).

4. Abhair Tráchtála agus Liteardha —ar a n-áirmhítear Cuntasaíocht, Tíreolas Gheilleagair, Bun-Chunta-saíocht, Gearr-scríobhnóireacht, Cló-scríobhnóireachta, Modhanna Tráchtála, Uimhríocht Tráchtála, Gaedhilg, Béarla agus Tíreolas.

5. Abhair Ealadhan—ar a n-áirmhítear Tuath-eolas, Garradóireacht, Eolas na Camharsanachta, Cuntasaíocht Feilme, Matamaitic Cleachtach agus Ealadha Chleachtach.

De ghnáth bíonn múinteoirí sonn-racha i mbun gach roinn de na habhair sin agus is féidir beagnach na múinteoirí go léir atá ag obair faoi Choistí an Dán-Oideachais a roinnt do réir na gcúig roinn sin.

On gcaoi a bhfuil an sgéal go dtí seo tá faighte amach nach leor, le go n-éireochadh le ranganna tráthnóna ina mbíonn cuid mhór daoine óga a bhíonn ag obair ar feadh an lae nach mór, go mbeadh an múinteoir cáilithe i dteoir na n-ábhair a bhíonn air a mhúineadh, ach go gcaithfidh sé eólas a bheith aige freisin ar a ngabhann de chleachtadh leis an teoir sin. Ní mór don mhúinteoir i gceár-danna Foirgnimh bheith ina shiúinéir maith agus ní mór don Mhúinteoir i gcúrsaí Tighis eolas a bheith aici freisin ar Chócaireacht agus ar Obair Shnáthaide agus don Mhúinteoir Tráchtála taithighe a bheith aige féin i gcúrsaí gnótha má bhíonn sé ag súil go mbeadh meas ag na mic léighinn air nó go gcuirfeadh siad suim ina theagasc.

Do b'fhéidir i gcás Roinn 1, 2 agus 3, múinteóirí d'fháil go ráibh oilteacht agus cleachtadh aca sna hábhair seo mar is ó chúrsaí speisialta a bhí ag an Roinn a fuarthas na Múinteóiri sin agus is de bhárr na taithighe a bhí fáighte maidir leis na múinteóirí a theghadh agus a oiliúint, a thárla an bhreis éifeach-túlacht teagaise a luadhadh thuas. Cuíreann na múinteoirí seo an obair chleachtach ar fhíorthús an chláir. Tugann siad teagasg cinnte do na mic léighinn in obair áithrid a bhaineas go dlúth leis an gceird atá acú nó leis an gceird go mbéidh fútha gabháil léi, agus ina theannta sin tugann siad teagasc dóibh sa teóir a ghabhann leis an obair sin. San am chéadna (nó tamall ina dhiaidh sin do réir an saghas mac léighinn a bhíos sa rang) tugann siad teagasc in ábhair atá gaolmhar dá n-ábhair féin, mar shampla, Líníocht, Matamaitic, Innealeólas, Tarraiceoireacht Pátrun, Sláinteolas agus mar sin de. Le goirid anuas do rinneadh amhlaidh, sé sin an teagasc sa teóir do choinneál siar go dtí go musclúi-tear suim an mhic léighinn ann agus go mbeidh muinighin aige as an múinteoir. D'eirigh go ri-mhaith leis an módh sin i gcás mac léighinn a dhearmad an rud a d'fhoghluim siad sa mbun-scoil, nó a bhí lag sa mbun-scoil, agus a d'fhág í gan mórán luighe aca leis na trí bun-ábhair— Scríobhnóireacht, Uimhríocht agus Léightheoireacht.

Daoine go bhfuil Céimeanna Iol-scoile aca i dTráchtáil agus nach bhfuil mórán cleachtaidh aca ar chúrsaí ghnóthaí is mó atá ag múineadh na n-ábhar i Roinn 4. Go ceann cúpla bliain ní bhíonn siad gar do bheith chó cothrom mar mhúin-teoirí leis na múinteoirí a bhíos ag teagasc na n-ábhar i Roinn 1, 2 agus 3. Ní hionann bheith i mbun-rang tráthnóna i gceárd-scoil agus bheith in Iolsgoil agus ó thárla nach mbíonn aon ullamhú speisialta, den tsaghas a tugtar do na múinteoirí eile, ag na múinteoirí a thagann ón Iolscoil í ndiaidh a gcéim do ghnóthú, bíonn sé deacair dóibh luighe leis an obair.

Bíonn neart eólais aca ar na hábhair a bhíonn le teagasc aca ach is mór an deifríocht dearcaidh atá idir iad féin agus na mic léighinn, agus dá dá bhrí sin is deacair dhóibh suim na mac léighinn do mhúscailt tré cheangal a dhéanamh idir an teoir agus an obair a bhíonn le déanamh aca 'chuile lá. Ní thig leó mórán dul 'n cinn a dhéanamh go dtí go dtuigidh siad intinn na ndaoine seo go mbíonn ortha a mbeatha a shaothrú go hóg. I gcionn cúpla bliain tuigeann an chuid is mó de na múinteoirí seo an sgéal, agus déantar múinteoirí maithe dhíobh. Is léir, amh, ón méid aimsire a thógann sé ortha na mic léighinn a thuisgint, go bhfuil gá le cúrsa speisialta gairid leis na Céimnigh seo i dTráchtáil, go bhfuil fútha dul le múinteoireacht i gCeárd-Scoltachaí, d'oiliúint.

Níl mórán de na múinteoirí i "Roinn 5" i gcomparáid leis na múinteoirí eile. Tá na múinteoirí seo i ndá Roinn—(a) na daoine seo go bhfuil céimeanna aca in Ealadhain Fiscigh agus in Innealtóireacht agus atá ag obair i gCeárd-Scoileanna na gContae mBuirg agus (b) iad seo go bhfuil Céimeanna aca i dTuath-eolas nó i dTalmhaíocht. Is fada anois ó bunuigheadh an chéad aicme agus de ghnáth bíonn an obair go maith. Níor thosuigh an dara haicme ag múineadh ach scathamh gearr ó shoin. Do toghadh iad ar bhealach a bhí cosúil go leor leis an mbealach ar toghadh múinteoirí i Roinn 1 agus 2, agus tugadh cúrsa gairid speisialta dhóibh sa Samhradh anuiridh (1931) le hiad d'ullamhú i gcóir Oideachais Leanúnaigh agus Dán-Oideachais faoi'n dtuaith. Obair de shórt nuadh í seo agus ó thárla nach bhfuil na múinteoirí ag obair ach le cúpla mí, ní féidir aon tuairim chinnte a thabhairt faoi fós. Tá cosúlacht san am chéadna go mbeidh toradh maith ar an obair agus tá súil go mbeidh tuille de na múinteoirí sin ag teastáil gan mórán achair.

Fuarthas réidhteach sásúil ar an deacracht a bhí ann chun teagasc éifeachtúil do sholáthar in ábharaibh speisialta a bhaineas le ceárda; agus sé réidhteach é sin ná múinteoirí lán-oilte ina gceárd speisialta féin d'fhostú go páirt-aimsireach chun an teagaise do thabhairt. Tá an furmhór díobh ag obair i gConntae-Bhuirg Bhaile Atha Cliath; ach tá múin-teóirí dá leithéid ag obair in áitean-naibh eile ina bhfuil éileamh ar theagasc den chineál sin agus ina bhfuil múinteóirí oireamhnacha le fagháil sa cheanntar. Fuarathas amach gur do réir eólais agus clisteachta na múinteoirí féin ina gceárd féin a théigheann a gcuid teagaisc chun leasa do sna foghlumóirí. Má bhionn an t-eólas ag na múinteoirí agus an chlisteacht dá réir ionnta, is iondual go mbíonn an teagasc go héifeachtúil, ní fada a bhíonn múinteóir i bhfeighil na hoibre go mbionn tuigsint aige ar a chuid scoláirí, agus annsan luigheann sé le n-a ghnó ar nós deagh-mhúin-teora; b'fhéidir go múineann sé go neamh-ghnáthach uaireanta ach múineann sé ar a nós féin agus múineann sé go maith.

Is beag an uimhir de mhúinteoirí Ealadhan agus Ceárd atá againn, i gcomparáid leis an méid múinteoirí atá againn in hábharaibh eile. Agus is ins na bailte móra is mó a bhíonn siad le fagháil. Is mór i gceart agus is éagsamhail an difríocht dearcaidh agus aigne a bhíos ag na foghlumóirí a thagann chun na ranganna so. Bíonn cuid acu ag lorg eólais ar Líníocht, ar Dhealbhóireacht, agus mar sin de,— ceárda a mheasaid a thiocfaidh isteach áiseach chúca féin ina ngnáth-obair, nó a chabhróchaidh leó chun iad féin d'oileadh i gcóir puist áirithe. Bíonn cuid eile ag teacht chun na ranganna mar chaitheamh-aimsire dóibh féin nó chun breis oilteachta culturdha nó saoidheachta do chur ortha féin. Is iad so, is deireannaighe a luadhaim, is mó a thagann chun na ranganna agus de bhrígh gurb amhlaidh atá agus fós go mbíonn il-iomad gnótha ar siubhal acu, is deacra aidhm agus críoch na múinteoireachta ina hiom-láine do stiúradh ar shlí go mbeithfí deimhin go bhfuil príomh-chuspóir dá leanamhaint go sásamhail. De ghnáth, bíonn an mhúinteoireacht a deintear in il-chraobhachaibh na hoibre, go sásamhail, agus i gceanntaraibh áirithe bíonn sí go hárd-éifeachtúil; cuir i gcás, i Luimnigh, mar ar ghaibh buadh fé leith leis an Líníocht ar Clárdubh a deineadh le linn an Chúrsa do Mhúinteoiríbh a bhí ar siubhal ann le deireannaighe. Taisbeánann na samp-laí de Ghreas-Obair Céirde, a cuireadh isteach ar chomórtas na bliadhna anuiridh go ndeintear oilteacht céirde do mhúineadh go feilimeanta ina lán áiteanna. In san am chéadna, ní sásamhail an rud é nach bhfuil aidhm nó cuspóir fé leith ós comhair na lucht foghluma, ins na rangannaibh seo, ná nach ndeineann múinteoireacht Eala-dhan anamúlacht ná feabhas do chur ar an obair ins na gnáth-ábharaibh eile. Tá a lán tuarasgabháil speisialta ag cur síos ar ghnáth-mhúinteóireacht céirde sa tír.

Ní leór fós an méid eolais atá fáighte again ar Scoltachaí agus ar Chúrsaí Speisialta Lae, i gcómhair Dán-Oideachais, chun breithiúntas iomlán críochnuithe a thabhairt ortha. Ach maidir le haon chuid de na Scoltacha so in aon áit in ar cuireadh ar bun iad, agus clár (curriculum) speisialta leagtha amach dóibh—clár a ceapadh i gcómhair riachtanaisí aon dreama fá leith de mhacaibh léighinn—ní miste a rádh gur éirigh go rimhaith leo. Tá buachaillí agus cailíní ag freastal ortha ná raibh ar scoil le bliadhanta, agus glacaid go fonnmhar leis an teagasc, agus imthighid i ndeireadh na bliadhna agus ullmhúchán cinnte déanta aca chun dul le gnó áirithe éigin. Is sompla maith na Scoltachaí Lae sna háiteacha seo leanas, eadhon,

Luimneach—Innealtóireacht Gluaisteán agus Gléasraidh Aibhléise;

Brí Chualann—Teagasc Abhar Tighis;

Tiobraid Árann—Tráchtáil;

An tInbhear Mór—Loingseoracht agus Tráchtáil;

Ceatharlach—Teicneolas agus Tráchtáil;

Ceapach na bhFaoiteach—Ábhair Tuaith-eolais (do Bhuachaillí agus do Chailíní);

Cam Eolaing—Ábhair Tuaith-eolais (do Bhuachaillí agus do Chailíní);

Is sompla maith iad ar an ghlaodh-ach ilghnéitheach atá ar chineálacha speisialta scoltach i ngach ceárn den tír agus is samplai maithe iad freisin, ar fhundúireachtaí léighinn ina bhfuil an tinnreamh riaghalta, na mic léighinn dúthrach-tach, agus an teagasg árd-éifeachtach i gcoitchinne.

Níl mórán cleachtaidh fáighte againn fós fá Scoileanna agus fá Chúrsaí Leanamhna i gcoitchinne. Tosnuigheadh san bhFoghmhar seo chuaidh thart ar chupla cúrsa páirt-aimsire—eadhon, cúrsaí ina raibh ó 6 go 10 n-uaire a chluig de theagasc gach seachtmhain ionnta in ábhair mar Gaedhilg, Béarla, Tlacht-eólas, Uimhríocht ach níor éirigh go ró-mhaith leó i gcoitchinne. Múinteoirí lán-aimsire i nGaedhilg nó in ábhair Tráchtála faoi Choiste an Dán Oideachais a thug an teagasc sin nó maighistir scoile na háite agus é ar fastódh páirt-ama. I ngach cás rinneadh an obair ró-fhoirmeálta agus ní rabh mórán bainte ag an obair le gléas beatha na ndaoine ná le gné agus airdheana na háite; agus tháinig de sin gur chaill na mic léighinn suim sna gnaithe agus stad siad de freastal na rang.

Tá mór-chuid múinteoirí Gaedhilge ag obair fá Choistí, taoibh amuich de sna múinteoirí ar ábharaibh teicniciúla. Tá an chuid is mó acu so ag múineadh ranganna Gaedhilge i mbailte fá'n dtuaith, ach tá breis ag teacht ar an uimhir d'áiteanna ina múintear ranganna Gaedhilge mar chuid den ghnáth-chlár oibre ins na Scoltachaí Leanamhna leithleacha. De ghnáth, bítear sásta le feabhas na múinteoireachta, ach tagann meath ar an obair de bhárr na deacrachta a bhaineann le dul-chun-cinn a dhéanamh leis na mic léighinn ó bhliadhain go bliadhain. Is féidir dul-chun-cinn cinnte seasamhach do dhéanamh in ábharaibh teicniciúla, agus go mór mór in obair Láimhe, le trí fichid uair a chluig de mhúinteoireacht; ach i gcás teangan do mhúineadh, is gádh i bhfad níos mó aimsire chun buan-toradh d'fhagháil as an obair. Ar an ábhar sin, muna leanann an mac léighinn ar feadh thrí mbliadhan ar a laighead, ar freastal ar na ranganna Gaedhilge agus ag dul céim ar aoirde in aghaidh na bliadhna, ní féidir dó aon dul-chun-cinn do dhéanamh dáiríribh. Tá ceanntair áirithe ann, cuir i gcás Conntae Chorcaighe, ina bhfuil scéim múinteoireachta na Gaedhilge ar cómhoibriú go hiongantach, agus mealltar na foghlumóirí thar n-ais, bliadhain i ndiaidh bliadhna go hárd-ranganna, agus tagann toradh fóghanta ar an múinteoireacht dá bhárr sin, agus faightear gearra-chuid mhaith de sna foghlumóirí agus eolas líomhtha beacht ar an nGaedhilge acu. Faightear toradh maith, freisin, mar a mbíonn scéim fóghanta scoláireachta ar bun, le n-a gcuirtear na foghlumóirí is toghtha go Coláiste Gaedhilge ar feadh míosa. Ar an gcuma so tuigtear fáth a bheith le hobair an ranga i rith na bliadhna, agus bíonn aidhm ós cómhair an fhoghlumóra—nó cuspóir a ghríosuigheann é chun tinnrimh go féileamhail.

Tá i gcoitchinne, dhá ní do bheir éifeacht don teagasc a tugtar fé scéimeanna Dán-Oideachais. Sé an chéad ní dhíobh, suim dhúthrachtach an mhic léighinn féin a dheineann tinnreamh ar na ranganna de ghnáth d'fhonn eólas agus cleachtadh d'fhagháil ar ábhar éigin ar leith. Eireochaidh an mac léighinn as an tinnreamh muna sásuightear an mian san aige; agus, dá bhrigh sin, béidh ar an oide an t-ábhar teagaisc agus an oiliúint a thabhairt dó go héifeachtúil má's áil leis a rang a choinneál ó scaipeadh agus ó dhul ar neamhní. Ach mar sin féin, ní bhéadh ar an obair a déanfaí leis an chuspóir sin amháin ach toradh leamh gan mórán tábhaicht. Sé an dara ní agus an príomh-ábhar atá le héifeachtúlacht na hoibre ná dílseacht agus díoghrais na múinteoirí. Tá spéis ag a bhfurmhór ina gcuid oibre, is mór aca a gcuid mac léighinn agus is fonn leo cabhrú leo. Ón gcaidreamh atá aca cheana le fostathóirí agus le hoibridhthe agus ón mbaint atá aca le rangannaibh oidhche i gcomhair daoine atá dáiríribh ag obair cheana féin, tá claonadh aca chun a gcuid teagaisc a chur in oiriúint do na riachtanaisí atá fé láthair agus a bhéas ar ball ar a gcuid mac léighinn; agus dá bhrí sin, do bheir siad teagasc tuigseach uatha go mbíonn dóchas agus muinghin aca as a thairbhe. Tá an mhuinghin sin, a bheag nó a mhór, ag na hoidí Céard-Oideachais uile beagnach agus is é an príomh-chomhacht é maidir le héif-eacht a gcuid oibre i rangannaibh lae agus oidhehe.

Ealadha agus Eolaíocht.

Ó tugadh isteach na Meastacháin anuraidh níor tháinig aon atharú ró-mhór ar a mbaineann le Fundúireacht na hEaladhan agus na hEolaíochta agus ní dhéanann na Meastacháin seo ach soláthar, go generálta, do na rudaí a bhíos ag teastáil de ghnáth ó na Fundúireachtaí seo.

Táthar ag gabháil fós don ath-chóiriú atáthar a dhéanamh do réir na molta a rinne an Coiste Fiosrúcháin sa mbliain 1927 agus tá cuid mhaith den ath-chóiriú i Roinn Sean-Sheod Eireann déanta cheana. Toisc a laighead spás atá ann tá cosc á chur le hobair Roinn na Beath-eolaíochta ach tá an scéal á phléidhe ag Oifigigh mo Roinn-se le Coimisinéirí na nOibreacha Puiblí i n-ionnas go mbrostóchar leis na pleananna i gcóir na foirigintí ina bhfuil Bailiúchán na Beath-eolaíochta do leathnú.

Is mór an chabhair san obair atá á dhéanamh i Roinn na Sean-Sheod agus i Roinn na Beath-eolaíochta an bheirt chongantóirí a ceapadh do Chimeádaí na Sean-Sheod agus an bheirt eile do ceapadh do Chimeádaí Roinn na hEaladhan agus an Tionnscail.

Táthar ag déanamh iarracht faoi láthair le Congantóir d'fháil ag a mbeidh cáilíochtaí i dTlachteolaíocht do Roinn na Beath-eolaíochta. Nuair a ceapfar an tOifigeach sin beidh líon na foirne atá údaruithe don Roinn sin iomlán.

Ní lugha líon na mac léighinn atá ag freastal ar Príomh-Scoil na hEaladhan i mbliana ná bhíodh ag freastal uirthe na blianta roimhe seo, agus tá gach saghas obair a déantar sa Scoil ag dul ar aghaidh mar is gnáth.

Do rinneadh cuid mhór atharuithe le goirid sa gcóir atá ar fáil do léigh-theoirí sa Leabharlainn Náisiúnta. Tá méadú beag le tabhairt faoi deara ar líon na léightheoirí a bhaineann feidhm as an Leabharlainn ó rinneadh na hatharuithe.

Maidir le Scéimeanna na Roinne i dtaobh leabhra Gaedhilge d'fhoillsiú tá ag éirghe go maith le foillsiú leabhar i nGaedhilg faoi'n dá Scéim go bhfuiltear ag iarraidh soláthar 'na gcóir (Meán-Oideachais, Fó-Mhír E, agus Ealadha agus Eolaíocht, Fó-Mhír B 1.).

Níor bh'fhéidir go dtí seo toisc a laighead leabhar feiliúnach a bhí ar fáil, barraíocht teagaisc a thabhairt tríd an nGaedhilg, ach is áthas liom a rádh go bhfuil feabhas ag teacht ar an scéal do réir a chéile. Ón bhliain 1927 do foillsigheadh 9 gcinn de théacs-leabhra. Tá leabhra ortha sin ag baint le Céimseata, Aireamh, Algébar, Stair, Tíreolaíocht, Obair Shnáthaide agus Laidin. Ina dteannta sin do foillsigheadh 32 leabhar a bheadh féiliúnach mar abhar léightheoireachta in sna Meán - Scoileanna. Do foillsigheadh an 41 leabhar seo faoi'n Scéim go bhfuiltear ag iarraidh soláthar a dhéanamh ina cóir sa Meastachán i gcóir Ealadha agus Faoi'n scéim go bhfuiltear ag iarraidh soláthar a dhéanamh ina cóir sa Meastachán i gcóir Ealadha agus Eolaíocht do foillsigheadh 58 leabhra ar fad ó 1928 nó 99 leabhra faoi'n dá scéim. Tá ós cionn 200 leabhar á n-ullamhú ag Oifigigh mo Roinne faoi láthair faoi'n dá Scéim agus meastar go bhfoillseochar thimcheall's 50 díobh sin taobh istigh den bhliain seo chugainn. Beidh ar na leabhra sin téacs-leabhra ag baint le Tíreolaíocht, Stair, Gréigis agus Laidin. Tá aistriúcháin ón Fhrainncis, ón Ghearmáinis, ón Spáinnis, ón Eadáilis, ón Rúisis, gan trácht ar aistriúcháin ón Bhéarla, ar na leabhra atá á n-ullamhú mar abhar léightheoireachta i gcoitchinn.

I dteannta na hoibre seo tá dhá chineál eile leabhar á gcur le chéile. Ar an gcéad iarracht tá foclóirí de sna téarmaí ceárdúla atá ag teastáil sa nGaedhilg á bhfoillsiú. Tá foillsithe cheana dhá leabhrán 'na bhfuil Gaedhilg ar na téarmaí ceárdúla a bhaineas le (a) múineadh Staire agus Tíreolaíochta agus (b) le múineadh Gramadaighe agus Litríochta. Tá súil go mbeidh leabhrán eile den chineál chéadna—in a mbeidh na téarmaí a bhaineas le hEolaíocht, le Ceol agus le Tráchtáil—réidh an bhliain seo chugainn.

Agus ar an dara h-iarracht tá Foclóir Béarla-Gaedhilge á ullamhú. Tá an obair seo ag dul ar aghaidh go maith. Do tosnuigheadh uirthe i ndeireadh na bliana 1930, agus tá súil go mbeidh an Foclóir seo ar an margadh roimh dheire na bliana 1933. Ba cheart go mbéadh sé ina Fhoclóir bhunúsach go ceann mórán blian.

I dteannta na bhfoillsiúchán seo cuidigheann an Roinn le léiriú Drámaí i nGaedhilg tré Dheontaisí a thabhairt do Chóluchaisí áithride a léirigheann drámaí Gaedhilge. Is i bhfuirm Deontas-i-gCabhair (£1,200) atá roinnte idir Chómhar Dhrámaíochta Bhaile Átha Cliath agus Taibhdhearc na Gaillimhe a tugtar an chabhair. Ar feadh na 15 míosa ó Eanar 1931 go Márta 1932 do bhí naoi léirithe ag Taibhdhearc na Gaillimhe agus i gcás Cómhar Bhaile Átha Cliath léirightear drámaí i rith an Gheimhridh agus le roinnt bliain anuas bhí seacht léiriú in aghaidh an tsiosóin aca.

The practice has been to take the debate on Education generally on the Vote for the Office of the Minister, and to conclude that debate the Minister replies to questions or criticisms. Subsequent Votes for the Department are put without debate. That procedure would not preclude Deputies from asking questions on these Votes. This means that the debates on Votes 45, 46, 47, 48, 49, 50 and 51 would take place now. I presume that the existing practice will be followed.

I do not want to occupy the time of the House very long. A considerable amount of money is involved in these Estimates, as has been pointed out, from year to year. For very many obvious reasons, I do not intend to take up the time of the House at any length now. As the House is aware, the Estimates were prepared under the Minister's predecessor. To some extent, consequently, there may be some slight difficulty in discussing the Estimates, especially as I gather there was really no fundamental change, and I think the country will congratulate the Minister on this.

In the interesting précis that the Minister gave in the general report of the affairs of his Department and as to how they now stand, a certain number of people will undoubtedly get information as to the progress that has been made in the Department in the last twelve months; and also possibly a certain number of people will gain a certain amount of comfort from the belief that the foundations of our educational system have been well laid, that the whole institutions that the Minister has taken over are in a flourishing condition, and that while modifications in detail may be necessary, up to the present, at all events, I gather that the Minister has not announced any fundamental change in policy. Naturally with that I have no fault to find.

Everybody will admit that in this matter, particularly, every year must mean on the part of everybody engaged in education—on the part of the teachers on whom must fall the re-sponsibility, as well as on the Department, there must be a determined effort to go forward. The functions of the Department are to a large extent guiding functions. On the Department and on the teachers must fall the duty of making every effort to advance. Naturally the advance cannot be as rapid as some people would wish. I think everybody who is acquainted with the difficulties, some of which the Minister referred to, will readily acknowledge that unless there is a determined effort to go forward there will be a danger of falling back. There were a certain number of matters raised in the Minister's report on which I would like a little more detailed information. The Minister will remember that on previous occasions here, and, generally speaking, throughout the country there was a certain amount of criticism of the fact that, for instance, in the secondary schools, our programme was too limited. Efforts were made to meet what seemed to be legitimate in that particular complaint, recognising, of course, the particular problems that this country had to face, and recognising that the school curriculum—that is, the number of subjects that an individual pupil might be expected to take—has definite limits.

I gather that the Minister looked forward to some improvement, especially so far as modern continental languages are concerned, in the coming year, but I should like to know how far the schools are actually availing themselves of the opportunity of greater freedom that was given to them by the modifications that were recently introduced. It is really that I am asking information from the Minister; I am not criticising him or his Department in this particular matter because it is a matter primarily for the schools, but I think it would be interesting to know whether the schools have shown any readiness, or as much readiness as might be expected, to avail of the freedom that they continually demanded, but which occasionally when it was granted they showed themselves rather slow to accept. How far has there been in that respect, therefore, a widening of the curriculum? On what grounds exactly is the Minister's hope founded, and on which he looks forward to an improvement in that particular respect, especially so far as the language is concerned in the years 1933 and 1934? It is owing, possibly, to the way in which examinations loom into the education curricula of this country, especially in the secondary schools for many years—almost for a generation and a half—that it is difficult to get the schools to shake themselves free altogether from the dominance of the examination. I fully realise the difficulty of that, but if it could be done, I think, on the whole something would be achieved. I, therefore, would like to know whether the Minister is in a position to give any information along the lines I suggest. We are rather late in the year discussing this Estimate, and I did not gather from the Minister whether there would or would not be Supplementary Estimates.

The reason I ask this is the following:—The Minister may remember, and possibly all Parties in the House will remember, that since he came into the House, and before he came into the House, the predecessors of the Minister had to withstand a barrage every year for increased expenditure—enormous demands, possibly demands that would increase the educational budget, as was more than pointed out, by anything from a million to a million and a half. On this occasion speeches were made from the Government Benches that, unfortunately, owing to financial stringency those demands could not be met. Now I submit to the Minister that, as money seems to be extraordinarily plentiful—as far as the Government is concerned they seem to have an inexhaustible supply of money —here is an opportunity for those Deputies who, in former years, made those demands, now making those demands effective in the particular line. If money is being spent broadcast— and undoubtedly it is as far as the public can judge, being spent rather lavishly at the present moment—I would like to know whether any effort is being made to secure a portion of that golden shower for those reforms that we were told on so many previous occasions were absolutely necessary.

Perhaps in that respect the Minister might also give some information as to—again a perennial question—the exact state at the moment of the Teachers' Pension Fund. What are the intentions of the Government in that respect? The Minister may remember that certain negotiations were entered into some twelve months ago by the then Executive Council and the then Executive of the teachers. How far has that agreement been repudiated by both sides? How far does it still hold? How far have steps been taken to examine or to deal with the questions raised—and so often raised—on the Pensions Fund? I really am looking for information on this particular point. It is, I think, the Minister will admit, extremely difficult for the public to know precisely what is the exact state of affairs in this and in allied matters, shall I say, at the present moment. The Minister has indicated that he intends to introduce a modification of the Secondary Teachers' Pension Scheme. Perhaps, therefore, this might be a suitable opportunity for the Minister to have an actuarial investigation of the present state of the fund made, so that the Government may be in a position to know precisely what the commitments already are, so far as the public is concerned, and what the commitments of the modification that the Minister foreshadows are likely to be.

I think anybody engaged or interested in education, or anybody who listened to the debates here year after year, would know that there are many directions in which money could be usefully spent on education. I should not suggest, if I were to take the economic view I hold of the country, that I could advocate that very strongly at the present moment, but for the moment I put myself into the point of view of the Government Party—an extremely difficult feat, I confess, for me to accomplish—and I think there ought to be an opportunity, as I have already said, for wide reforms, and for large claims by the Minister and his colleagues. Again and again people have pointed out the desirability of dealing with those between the ages of fourteen and sixteen years. The Technical Education Bill did not or could not make the attendance age at primary or technical schools compulsory for those not in employment. When that was going through, the Minister will remember that that was a problem that seemed to baffle solution. Certainly the Minister's predecessor could not solve it, and the House had no real definite practical solution to offer.

Now, as I say, that money is so plentiful for spending purposes, the raising, for instance, in large cities of the school age to sixteen, for those who have not reached the sixth standard, involves considerable expenditure, hence I should hesitate myself to urge it, but possibly the Minister, now that there is a warm-hearted, generous Government in power, might be willing to meet any claims put forward in that respect. There are some other minor matters of detail on which possibly the House would like a little information. I am glad to hear that the facilities given under the recent Technical Education Act are being availed of, and that increased accommodation is being found for technical schools. When the Act came into force there was a refreshing tendency—I may say, in some respects, a decidedly encouraging tendency, a tendency that gave agreeable surprise to those interested in technical education—on the part of the Local Authorities, not merely to bear the increased burden that was put on them by that Act, but, as I think the Minister will agree, even to go beyond that, and to come forward with contributions for the building of technical schools. I should like to know whether that tendency has been continued and how far it has gone. One particular matter as I am on the question of accommodation—I have been asked once or twice about it, and the Minister will be particularly au fait with the question, that is how, precisely, does the project of handing over the Model Schools in Kilkenny to the Technical Committee there, under certain conditions, stand? How far has that advanced, say, in the last six or seven months? I admit that is possibly a detailed question and one which the Minister should normally get notice of, but owing to the peculiar circumstances of that particular case, I take it for granted the Minister has full information on the matter. The Minister referred to the state of education in the various subjects. He had generally words of comfort to give to the House, but I think there was an exception in the condition of mathematics. I think the Minister, if I interpreted him correctly, did not suggest there had been an improvement there.

I recognise fully the difficulty of the problem the Minister was up against. I raise that now because it was a question that I think the House will remember that was particularly raised last year in the very interesting debate that took place on the education estimates on that occasion, and I think his predecessor promised that the Department would institute an investigation into that particular matter. I do not say now, and I do not think very great hopes were held out as to whether an investigation could exactly produce an immediate solution, but on investigation as to what exactly was the real state of affairs in connection with the teaching of mathematics, especially in the primary schools, the Minister will remember it was exceedingly difficult from the reports of the different Inspectors—exceedingly difficult from the views that were held by those who wrote as experts in the Press—to find out precisely what was the condition of mathematics in the primary schools; and in so far as there might be a foundation for the charge that it was unsatisfactory what precisely was the cause of such unsatisfactoriness in connection with that subject. I know all the subjects will present a difficulty in securing that we continually keep up-to-date, continually advance,—as I pointed out was necessary. It may be particularly difficult in the case of mathematics, not altogether, by any means, owing to any fault on the part of the teachers, especially the older teachers, because mathematicians and mathematical experts, and experts on mathematical training and teaching have been varying their views as to what should be done, and a great deal of the difficulty may be due to the fact that an effort is being made to combine a couple of things that may be difficult to mix together, to induce men that were trained in an older system of mathematics, of rather advanced years to change their system. I would like to know whether the Minister thinks that that is one of the causes of what he considers the unsatisfactory condition of the teaching of mathematics at the present moment.

However, I raised this question merely to know what advance has been made in finding out the information that was more or less promised, not necessarily for this debate, but was promised something over twelve months ago. How far has the investigation into the cause of what many people then considered a weakness in our primary system—how far has that gone? Everybody will share the Minister's strong hopes of the benefits that may accrue to this country from the working of the Technical Education Act. People will naturally hope, and the public who are interested in education and in the general welfare and progress of the country will hope that every use will be made of that Act. They will share in the Minister's hope that the full three years' course will be attended, and that there will be progress from year to year. That is a hope everybody certainly will share. A policy has been introduced, well, not exactly introduced, but has been flung upon the country to deluge the country, as the Minister is probably aware in the last six months. Whatever may be its effect, it has at least for its object the setting up of factories in this country. I am not now going to discuss how far it is likely to achieve that object. Many people might hold, and I might agree with them, that it is likely to secure the opposite effect, but I take it for granted the Minister would be far from sharing my views on that particular matter. We must assume that he looks forward to a great industrial development in this country, great factory development especially. That being so, I would like to know what steps have been taken to accommodate his technical system not to the catastrophe that some people fear may occur but to the great industrial hopes that are shared by the Government of which the Minister is a member. I take it for granted if the Ministry has these great hopes of industrial development that these are shared by the Minister himself, consequently, I have no doubts his Technical Department has been instructed. I am speaking in all seriousness now, to see that every effort is made to have the closest cooperation between the industrial development and his technical system. I would like to know how far this increased industrialism has been prepared for—not merely in vague generalities prepared for—but actually in the working out in all concrete detail so far as the technical schools are concerned, and how far that has been brought to the notice of the various technical schools throughout the country.

One more word. The Minister referred to the Museum. He will remember that year after year a certain amount of complaint was made here about the accommodation in the Museum. I think it was acknowledged that that complaint was not without foundation, though various plans were put forward always in public as to how that particular congestion could be remedied, because the congestion meant that one of the most interesting and in some respects one of the most educative institutions under the direct control of the Minister, was not able, owing to the congestion, to fulfil its functions as fully as it might, and owing to the congested state of the Museum a proper exhibition of the objects was extremely difficult, if not impossible. Efforts, as the public knows, were made of a rather drastic character to deal with one particular side of that—clearing out of the Museum a lot of reproductions of plaster casts and that did increase accommodation. Then there were building plans for the extension of the Museum. I would like to know how far they have advanced. I would like to bring to the Minister's personal notice, and I am sure he has given it considerable attention, the project that might considerably relieve the pressure of the Museum without putting any undue burden on the taxpayer. I am speaking now of the Kildare Street end of the Museum, Art and Industries and the Irish archæological exhibits, if I may so call them. There is no reason why these should be actually kept in the same building. There is, as the Minister knows at the present moment, at least there was, a Departmental Committee looking into the question of building accommodation. A large suite of rooms, some I think that might be quite suitable for museum purposes, were being liberated. I quite admit that some of these may be necessary for public receptions. His colleague, the Minister for External Affairs, will undoubtedly put in strong claims so far as some of these rooms are concerned. On the first floor—not the ground floor—of the Castle there are undoubtedly rooms that could very well be utilised to relieve the pressure in the Museum. Other Departments will, undoubtedly, make strong claims for accommodation there. I do not know how far the Minister has given personal thought to the matter, but if, after examination, that scheme were found to be feasible, I think the Minister could put forward a strong claim for increased accommodation for the Museum in the Castle. There is no reason why the claims of the Minister for External Affairs should not be met and at the same time considerable accommodation found in the place that I suggest for the Museum.

There are various other questions that I might raise. I need only go back to the speeches of the Minister and of his then colleague, the present Ceann Comhairle, as well as to speeches of various members of his two Parties, the Fianna Fáil Party and the Labour Party. I could raise all these, but I do not think it would be quite fair.

Ní theastuíonn uaim mórán a rá ar an meastachán so atá os cóir na Dála anois ach tar éis bheith ag éisteacht leis an díospóir-eacht so go léir do deineadh do samh-luíodh dom gur ait an scéal é nár dhein an cainnteoir a labhair romham aon tagairt don Ghaedhilg agus í á labhairt fós ina chontae féin. Dhein sé tagairt do Mhatamaitic agus do theangacha coigríche agus do dhein sé tagairt d'Algéabar agus do Cheimi-eíocht ach níor dhein sé aon tagairt don Ghaedhilg agus is ar an abhar san is mian liom-sa caiunt a dhéanamh. Maidir leis na Bun-scileanna do dhein an cainteoir tagairt do chó lag agus a bhí Matamaitic sna scoileanna san. Sé mo thuairim-se nách ceart Algéabar agus Ceimicíocht do chur á múineadh chó luath san i Ranganna a Ceathair agus a Cúig. Tá na leanbhaí ró-óg chun na n-abhar so do mhúineadh dhóibh, agus nuair a bhíos féin ar scoil níor múineadh Algéabar ná Ceimicíocht d'aon rang níos ísle ná an Séú Rang. Measaim gur fearr an socrú é sin mar go mbeidh na mic léighinn tagaithe chun na haoise ina bhféadfaidís níos mó suime do chur ina gcuid oibre. Tá abhair eile ann is riachtanaí na Algéabar ná Ceimicíocht.

Ba mhaith liom anois deighleáil le ceist na Gaedhilge mar go bhfulim deimhnithe dhe ná fuil an teanga ag dul ar aghaidh sna Bun-Scoileanna agus sna Meán-Scoileanna chó maith agus ba cheart di. Ní féidir liom a thuigsint cad'na thaobh an scéal do bheith mar sin, ach cúis amháin is dócha atá leis ná an teanga do bheith á múineadh ag na sean-oidí sna ranganna is aoirde. Tá fhios againn go léir gur fearr an t-eolas atá ag na hoidí óga ar an teangain ná mar atá ag na sean-oidí fé láthair sa Ghalltacht. Agus mar gheall ar sin, ba cheart na ranganna is ísle do chur fé chúram na sean-oidí agus na ranganna is aoirde do chur fé churam na n-oidí óga. Tá abhar eile ann leis agus im'thuairim níltear ag tabhairt aire ceart do; sé an t-abhar é sin ná Stair na hEireann. Do réir mo thuairime-se ní múintear í mar ba cheart. Is ar éigin má tá aon eolas ag na leanbhaí ar an abhar san. Bhíos fein ar fheiseanna agus chuireas ceisteanna ar leanbhaí mar gheall ar an bPiarsach—cérbh' é féin agus cad é an gníomh a dhein sé agus cathain a mhair sé—ach ní raibh aon eolas aca mar gheall air. Ba cheart go gcomhairleofaí do sna hoidí níos mó de Stair na hEireann do mhúineadh do sna leanbhaí d'fhonn spioraid náisiúnta do chur sna páistí agus eolas níos fearr do bheith aca ar stair na tíre.

Tá ceist eile a bhaineann leis na Bun-Scoileanna agus ba mhaith liom tagairt a dhéanamh di. Ní mórán scoileanna atá sa Ghalltacht fé láthair ina múintear an Ghaedhilg tríd an nGaedhilg. Tugtar deontas do sna múinteoirí sna scoileanna sa Ghaeltacht mar gheall ar na hábhair scoile go léir do mhúineadh tríd an nGaedhilg agus 'sé mo thuairim go mba cheart deontas do thabhairt do sna múinteoirí sa Ghallacht chó maith, go bhfuil sé de dhuthracht ionta an obair cheanna do dhéanamh. Measaim féin go bhfuil sé níos deacaire d'oide atá i scoil sa Ghalltacht na hábhair scoile do mhúineadh tríd an nGaedhilg ná mar atá d'oide atá i scoil sa Ghaeltacht. Sin a bhfuil agam le rá mar gheall ar Bhun-Oideachas, ach tá cúpla níthe eile ann mar gheall ar Chéard-Oideachas gur mhaith liom tagairt dóibh. Cloisimíd a lán cainnte mar gheall ar Cheárd-Oideachas atá ar siúl againn, agus do réir na bhfigiúirí atá anso agam tá 50,000 mac léighinn ag freastal na Scoileanna Ceárd-Oideachais sa tír seo. B'fhéidir an ceart do bheith ann. Ach cad tá á dhéanamh aca? An bhfuil an Ghaedhilg ag dul ar aghaidh sna scoileanna so fé mar ba cheart? Tá colas agam-sa féin ar Scoileanna Ceárd-Oideachais agus ní baintear aon fheidhm as an nGaedhilg ionta; agus sé mo thuairim go mba cheart iachall a chur ar na mic léighinn uile a bhfonn ag freastal na scoileanna so dul fé scrúdú i nGaedhilg chó maith le haon abhar eile. Ba mhaith liom an cheist seo do chur ar an Aire, agus is féidir leis í d'fhreagairt nuair a bheidh sé ag tabhairt freagarth uaidh—cadé an deifríocht atá idir Cheard-Oideachas agus Gairm-Oideachas?

Tugadh Bille isteach anso cúpla bliain ó shoin agus do deineadh a lán cainnte mar gheall air. Do chreid daoine go dtiocfadh mórán maitheasa as. Do ceapadh é chun scoileanna do sholáthar ar fuaid an tSaorstáit ina dtabharfaí Gairm-Oideachas. Ní dóich liom féin go bhfuil aon deifríocht idir an dá chineál Oideachais, agus ní raibh á dhéanamh ag an mBille ach ag cur iarbaill ar Cheard-Oideachas, nuair b'é ba cheart a dhéanamh ná é do scauoeadg agus do leathnú ar fuaid na tíre.

Cé is ciontach leis sin?

Ní fheadar cé is ciontach leis, ach is mar sin atá an scéal.

Ach nách ceart féachaint í ndiaidh an iarbaill?

Ní dubhart-sa nár cheart féachaint ina dhiaidh ach deirim go mba cheart an corp féin do chur i dtreo i dtosach báire sara ndéanfaí fritheail ar an iarball. Ní raibh sa Bhille féin ach a bheith ag cur iabaill ar Cheárd-Oideachas.

Ba cheart an dá rud a dhéanamh le chéile?

Is dócha é. Níl a thuille agam le rá ach gurb é mo thuairim gur cheart ceol Gaelach do mhúineadh sna Bun-Scoileanna. Ba cheart leis rinnce Gaelach do bheith ar na habhair a múinfí. Ba cheart an dá abhar so do mhúineadh sna scoileanna agus is dóich liom leis gur cheart scoileanna le haghaidh ceoil Ghaelaigh do bhunú i mBaile Atha Cliath.

I do not wish to say very much on this subject, but there are one or two matters to which I wish to refer. I should like to say that one suggestion made by the last speaker, that pupils in primary schools should be instructed in Irish dancing will, no doubt, receive a cordial reception throughout the country. My recollection of my school days is that if I was invited to learn an Irish jig in the course of the morning's work, I would welcome the proposal, and I think my classmates would have done do also.

There are two matters on which I should like some information from the Minister when he is replying. I understand that the policy of the Department of Education now is that in all classes in the primary schools outside the Gaeltacht, as well as within, all subjects should be taught through the medium of Irish, whether the teacher is competent to do so, without any regard whatever to the competence of the pupils to understand the teacher. I fully appreciate that, in this country, primary education may be said to have a dual purpose, first, to educate the children generally, and second, to stimulate the revival of the language, and it becomes a question, on which I would like to hear the Minister, as to whether the best means of stimulating the language is to attempt to teach the children subjects which are essential to them if they are to be able to earn a living in the world, through the medium of a language which the children do not understand. I venture to suggest to the Minister that if that policy be pursued throughout those parts of this country where the language is not spoken, the net result of it will be that the Irish language, which he and I and many others are most anxious to see revived, will come to stink in the nostrils of the people.

The strain on small children, when they first go to school, in endeavouring to pick up the rudiments of subjects that ordinarily they are taught is considerable. If to abnormal strain is added the fact that the children are being addressed continually and exclusively in a language which they do not understand, I consider that great damage will be done to the children's constitutions. I submit to the Minister that if young children do not get a good start in the sphere of primary education their education will never progress as satisfactorily as it might. In that connection I would ask the Minister to go outside his Party, and to get the opinion of observers through the country, who have no particular outlook, but who merely look upon things as they see them, and to ascertain what are their impressions of the condition of primary education, even during the last three or four years, when the system of teaching through Irish has become much more wide-spread. I think he will find that the vast majority of parents and employers of juveniles will tell him that the standard of education in the three primary subjects, reading, writing and arithmetic, has deteriorated enormously.

Oh, no. No proof.

I am not attacking the Minister. I am only making the suggestion that he should go outside the usual sources of information available in a Department, and ask the ordinary people up and down the county, the parents of children attending primary schools, and the people who habitually take pupils from these schools straight into their employment, if they did not find that there was a very great deterioration in these three branches of education. Of course the Minister will understand that when I invite him to go outside his own Department I do so only because I know that the officers of the Department of Education are zealous to carry into effect, to the best of their ability, the policy of the Government. One would assume their natural predeliction to be that the schools in which every subject is taught through the medium of Irish are as good as any others. I am asking the Minister to go to people with another outlook, those who are simply looking to the results, and who have no feeling at all as to the method.

I was discussing the matter recently with a primary teacher of wide experience and liberal outlook, a man who shared my anxiety for the promotion and spread of the Irish language. I asked him why the writing of children coming from the primary schools was so dreadfully bad, compared with what it used to be ten or fifteen years ago. His answer was that in those days time was allowed for the teaching of writing, but that it was impossible to allow time now, owing to the amount of time required to be devoted exclusively to the teaching of Irish and to satisfy the authorities. I tell the Minister frankly, that, in my experience, young persons coming from the primary schools are not able to write what would be called a middling good hand, while the standard of ordinary spelling is very low. The standard of simple addition and simple mathematics is intolerably and preposterously low. I am speaking from the point of view of the earning capacity of the children, and I can assure the Minister that it is a very grave handicap to young persons going out into life when employers find they cannot tot figures and cannot read a simple piece which they would be prepared to stand over. As to their general knowledge, it is absolutely nil. I do not know if it is the policy of the Department of Education simply to teach the children geographical knowledge applying to the country in which they were born, and to let them find out the rest where they like. Certainly that is what is happening. I draw the Minister's attention to these facts, because I earnestly believe that the spread of the impression which has been made upon me is re-acting most unfavourably on the prospects of a healthy revival of the Irish language.

I should like to make a suggestion to the Minister as to the course he might pursue under powers which I think he already possesses, and that would not require any additional legislation. The great trouble in the Gaeltacht, as I know intimately to be the case in Donegal, where the language is still living, is the economic condition of the people. Heretofore the children of these families, if they wanted to be of any financial assistance to their parents, went away to England, to America or to Scotland.

On more than one occasion I have asked if the Minister for Education would not make a bolder use of the powers he has. I do not see why the Minister, if he really wants to preserve the language, if he really means business, and has a really enthusiastic Executive Council in this matter—and I do not think the Minister for Education in the last Government had —would not make it publicly known to every Irish-speaking household in the Gaeltacht that any child at the conclusion of primary education would be afforded an opportunity of being tested free of charge for fitness to be trained as a national teacher. If you got every year about 20 per cent. of the boys and girls from primary schools in the Gaeltacht whom you could train up for whatever period is necessary, I suggest that the remaining 80 per cent. should be offered at the expense of the Government a technical training in any trade they chose to pursue, that training to be given them in a technical college situated in the Gaeltacht, either in Galway or some place like Donegal. It would probably be desirable to have two colleges, one for Connacht and one for the rest of the country. If that course were pursued you would build up, in the course of a few years, a brigade of teachers who really could teach Irish, and not teach the stuff that is being doled out by a number of teachers who went down to Spiddal and other places to take a three weeks' course in order to qualify to keep their jobs.

I do not blame the teachers. They do their best, but any unprejudiced observer knows that a lot of the stuff that is being doled out inside national schools, in Government offices, and in Dáil Eireann for that matter, as Irish is anything but Irish. If you were to ask any native speaker what it was he would probably say that it might be Persian but it was not Irish.

A Deputy

Give a sample of it yourself.

Ní amadán mise. I know my own limitations and I am well able to realise that, while I can understand and read Irish, until I am in a position to speak it as it should be spoken I am not going to inflict it on the suffering ears of an audience. If every member of the House took a lesson from me it would be much easier for us to conduct our business here. Furthermore, I am not going to write it down and then read it out in the House. Until I am in a position to speak it as it should be spoken I am not going to try.

As I was saying, after a few years you will have Gaelic teachers who can speak the language in the way it should be spoken. The Department of Education could then quite legitimately, in my opinion, proceed outside the Gaeltacht and schedule a narrow area along the border of the Gaeltacht, where the language is not dead but dormant and dying, and could pursue an active policy of teaching real Irish to the children in the primary schools in that area. In those areas along the border of the Gaeltacht, where the old people are native speakers and naturally prefer to speak Irish, middle-aged people mostly understand it but they have got out of the habit of talking it. The children are being taught what is properly called in the county "book Irish" or pidgin Irish. That is the present situation. The small children go home and try to air their knowledge in the presence of their grandparents and they get laughed at for their trouble. If you had competent Irish teachers who would speak Irish as it should be spoken, the small children would be taught real Irish and when they went home you would find that the small children and the old people would be talking across the heads of the fathers and mothers of the children in their own language. Then a number of people who find a difficulty in using the language, if it were introduced into the houses by the children coming home from school, would start speaking it again. I know that from my own experience. I have seen it happen again and again in different places that if you engage elderly people in conversation in Irish in districts in close proximity to the true Gaeltacht, before you are talking five or six minutes you will find a number of middle-aged people whom you never dreamt had a knowledge of Irish joining in the conversation. After they have been speaking for a few minutes you will find them getting more fluent when they get into the swing of it. If the Department want to revive Irish—and I believe the Department and the Executive Council do want to revive it—that is the way to do it. The first step is to secure that any teacher placed in charge of children to teach them Irish will teach them real Irish and not pidgin Irish. The teachers cannot do that if they do not know the language themselves.

The all-important thing for the Department to remember in the process of teaching Irish is: do not stir up public opinion against your campaign. If you have not got public goodwill with you in this business it is absolutely hopeless. No amount of enthusiasm or zeal on the part of the teachers will ever pull the thing off. If the people are not with you the revival of the Irish language is absolutely beyond the bounds of possibility. There is one means of crystallising and strengthening public opposition to the revival of the language, and that is the impression throughout rural and urban districts in the country that children are being denied an education adequate to earning their living as a result of the teaching of Irish in the schools. That impression—and I urge on the Minister to make inquiries into the matter—is growing and becoming more widespread every day. I have not the slightest hesitation in saying that if the present policy is continued of teaching children all through the Galltacht, where there is no Irish, and where there has not been any Irish for the last fifty years, of teaching these children who never heard a word of Irish through the medium of Irish, there will grow up in the eastern counties and the midlands a public opinion against the revival of the Irish language, which will wipe the Gaeltacht out of existence in the course of the next ten years. It all depends on the public outlook.

I make a special appeal to the Minister in this regard. He has a great chance. If he gets it into his head that he can dragoon this country into the learning of the Irish language —he has it in his power to kill or save the Irish language—before public opinion is ready for it, he will kill the Irish language absolutely, finally, and irrevocably in the course of the next few years. If he makes up his mind, however, to turn to the Gaeltacht, to spread the language out of the Gaeltacht and to bring home to every Irish speaker in the Gaeltacht that the Irish language is a valuable asset, that any child born with the Irish language on his lips is going to have an assured future, that is the way to succeed. That is the way in which he will prevent any homestead allowing the language to die out within it. His colleague, the Minister for Agriculture, recently said that he was not going to compel anybody to grow wheat, but that he is going to say to every farmer who would grow wheat that he will guarantee that piece of wheat as a valuable asset. He is right in his psychology whatever one may think of his economics on that point.

I appeal to the Minister for Education to take a leaf from his book on the psychological aspect of this problem. Let him drive it home that where the Irish language is truly spoken the children have an asset that will secure them a livelihood in their own country. If he does that he will re-vitalise the Gaeltacht. Out of that he will get at the same time a competent supply of Irish teachers which will make it possible for him conscientiously to know that what he is having taught in the schools is the real Irish language as spoken by our forefathers. I suggest the Minister should consider these proposals.

I should like also to remind the Minister of the urgent necessity of making it clear to the parents of every child that if the child does not prove to be a suitable candidate in the teaching profession, he will not be dropped like a hot brick but that the Government will give him, if he is found not to be fit to be a teacher, in consideration of his qualifications as an Irish speaker a technical education in any trade which he chooses to pursue. It is well worth while doing that, and it is not going to cost an enormous amount of money. It is certainly not going to cost more money than the thing is worth. To my mind it is the only hope now of saving the language and it will have this further enormous advantage. There is a great public opinion growing up against compulsory Irish in its present form as taught in the primary schools in areas outside the Gaeltacht. The very withdrawal of that campaign in the Galltacht would create a favourable opinion for an intensive scheme in the Gaeltacht. The mere fact that the people in the Galltacht had their fears allayed as to the deterioration of the general standard of education in the primary schools outside the Gaeltacht would create a very favourable opinion as regards any expense that might be involved in intensifying, on the lines I suggested, the promotion of the Irish language within the Gaeltacht. To my mind that is the principal problem at present before the Department of Education.

Deputy Professor O'Sullivan has referred to a variety of other important matters, but the big difficulty, the big issue, by which the present Minister's reputation will stand or fall is whether the Irish language perished under his administration or not. It will be admitted that there were those in the late administration who did magnificent work, against difficult odds very often. I think it will be agreed that one of the most zealous and sincere workers for the Irish language was the ex-Minister for Finance, Deputy Blythe. I believe that the work which the late administration did has made it possible for the present Minister for Education to take his opportunity to do a great work. They kept the language alive and they did many things for which the nation owes them a great debt, and owes them something else in respect of the Irish language. One was this intensive campaign for compulsory Irish through the Galltacht. If the Minister will consider something along the lines I propose, I believe he can do a great work for the country.

A number of other questions might be raised under this Vote into which I do not propose to go. I will leave them for Deputies who may follow. I do urge upon the Minister most strenuously, however, to make an inquiry amongst the parents and the employers of young persons coming out of the primary schools in the Galltacht as to their standard of education in reading, writing, arithmetic, and ordinary general knowledge. If he gets an honest report, from people without any prejudices in the matter, I think he will be astonished at what the seventh standard is now in national schools in those places. I speak with a full realisation of the gravity of what I am saying. A large number of children coming out of the seventh standard of primary schools to-day, so far as the English language is concerned, are semi-illiterate. They are not able to write anything like a literate hand and they are ill-able to spell, but they can read reasonably well. Furthermore, their knowledge of arithmetic is deplorably inadequate, and their general knowledge, both historical and geographical, is astonishingly deficient. So far as their knowledge of Irish is concerned, it is also astonishingly deficient. I would ask the Minister to look into these questions and try to find out, from the classes of persons to whom I have referred, what their opinion is. If he does get an honest opinion, I think he will find that the conditions are as I have stated.

In the task of reviving and preserving the Irish language which has been undertaken, this country is facing a work which I do not think has been faced anywhere else. There has been something in the nature of language revivals in various countries, but there has never been, so far as I know, any question of restoring and reviving a language that had sunk to the weak position to which the Irish language has sunk. It will require every effort that it is possible to make, and it will require all the cooperation that it is possible to receive, in order to carry out that task successfully. A speech like Deputy Dillon's illustrates one of the big difficulties that are before us. I think undoubtedly the position is that up to the present we have not been doing enough for the language. In many directions we have not been going far enough in order to check the decay which was going on. On the other hand, we do depend on the goodwill of people who have not Irish, and on the goodwill of many people whose interest in the Irish language is small— the goodwill of people who are prepared to vote for the revival of the Irish language, but who are probably prepared to oppose every separate activity undertaken as a result of their vote. We are liable to have, not merely any sacrifices that may arise, or that may be called for as a result of the language policy, magnified, but to have things ascribed to the language policy which are not really the result of it. The difficulty, therefore, is that on the one hand we cannot go too far or too fast, for fear of alienating the body of opinion on which we must depend for the work, and on the other hand, we cannot go too slow, or the language will be gone while we are arguing about the speed with which we ought to move to restore or preserve it, or about the methods which we ought to adopt.

Deputy Dillon has talked about the question of teaching through Irish. That is a question of considerable difficulty, but I do not think the difficulty lies where Deputy Dillon first laid the emphasis. It is not so much a question of the children not knowing Irish. As far as I know, the scheme is that children be taught sufficient Irish to understand the instruction, at least fairly well, and that then they should be taught various subjects through Irish—their Irish improving as they were being taught. Undoubtedly, if a proper foundation of Irish is laid, any subject can be taught by a competent teacher perfectly well through the medium of Irish. We have examples in many schools where the most excellent results have been obtained in various subjects and where all the instruction was given through Irish and given to children who came to school without Irish. The difficulty is not on the side of the children if proper precautions are taken, and these precautions are not difficult to take. The difficulty is with the teachers.

It is undoubtedly a fact that a great many—perhaps the majority—of our teachers are not able to give instruction through Irish. We have to do the best that can be done with them, but a great many of them are hardly competent even to teach Irish satisfactorily. The teacher—even the most competent teacher—is handicapped very much by the lack of books. Something has been done and more is in progress, as we all know and as the Minister said, in regard to the provision of books; but there is a tremendous shortage of textbooks up to the present. In many subjects no textbooks are available or, if there are one or two, they are not always of the best and do not always suit the particular class for which they may have to be used. I believe that teaching through Irish is necessary and that the language cannot possibly be saved or extended without it. I am not in favour of pushing it forward unduly to the extent of having it done by an incompetent teacher, nor am I in favour of encouraging a teacher, not fully competent, to undertake it. Where the teacher is competent, however, it can be done, and without any disadvantage whatsoever to the children. I think that that has been amply demonstrated in the Preparatory Colleges and in a number of other schools.

Deputy Dillon referred to the question of writing. I do not know whether there would be any hope of the present Government doing something which the late Government never had the courage to do—although I think it was being gradually screwed up to the sticking point—and that is, whether they would drop the old script. I believe it is a tremendous handicap. The old type is a great handicap to the language. It proved a great handicap to the language heretofore. I believe the script is even a greater handicap. I think one of the difficulties in teaching writing to children is that they have to be taught first in one script and then in another, and their writing is like nothing on earth in either script. It imposes a burden and a handicap which I think can hardly be borne. I think the difficulty of actually saving the Irish language is so great, it is so much of a touch-and-go business, that no handicap should unnecessarily be put upon the work. I believe that at least one complaint upon which Deputy Dillon lays weight —and I have no doubt a great many employers and parents lay a great deal of weight on it too—could be got rid of if all the writing were done in the one script. It is a small point in one way, but I think it would get rid of one source of complaint.

I don't think enough is being done to save the Irish language. On the other hand, I think progress must be gradual. If new steps are in contemplation, or new steps can be devised, they must be taken one by one so as not to cause undue hardship and so as not to rouse unnecessary opposition to the whole policy. I hope the Government will pursue their policy and will, as time goes on, devise new methods and extend the use of existing methods and that, without the indiscretion that is to be noticed in their tariff policy, they will show some of the zeal that we have seen in that connection. I agree with Deputy Dillon in one part of his speech. The question of the salvation and preservation of Irish depends on the Gaeltacht, or what is commonly called the Fíor-Ghaeltacht—that part of the country where Irish is the common language of the people, in their homes and at fairs and when they meet on the road-side. The language cannot possibly be saved if it dies out in these districts where it now exists. If it were allowed to die there, whatever might be done in the schools it would gradually become more anaemic and more deserving of the term "pidgin-Irish," which Deputy Dillon used. These districts must be saved and there must be a concentration on them. From what I know of these districts and from the psychology of the people in them, I am perfectly certain nothing that could be done in the Gaeltacht, if it were to be confined to the Gaeltacht, would be of any use. There is no possibility of making the people of the Gaeltacht consent to be a peculiar group in this country. No matter what inducement may be offered them, they will only stick to Irish if they can be made to feel that the revival of the language is a matter of national policy; that they are not some remnant that is left behind by the nation, and that when the nation is won round linguistically they will be in the van of progress.

One of the things necessary is to use as far as possible the brains of the Gaeltacht—to bring the intelligent and clever young people to the front in their own areas and in the rest of the country. Besides that being a good policy for the language generally, I think it is the best policy for the Gaeltacht itself. All sorts of relief schemes and other economic schemes may be adopted for the Gaeltacht and they may be of considerable importance, but I think nothing is better than education for the children. I do not think you could go so far as to undertake to provide for every child in the Gaeltacht either as a national teacher or in some other way. I think the steps that have already been taken can be and should be extended as soon as it is possible to put the machinery into operation. We should endeavour, as far as possible, to draw all the really good young people—that is, from the intellectual point of view—of the Gaeltacht into some of the teaching or allied professions. As has been stated by the Minister, a certain amount is being done. There are special scholarships of various sorts, and there is free tuition in the colleges; there are grants for outfits, clothing and travelling expenses. It is now possible for people from the genuine Irish-speaking homes in the Gaeltacht to have some chance of getting an education and entering the teaching profession.

More work is, however, necessary in that respect. Something should be done in the way of trade or technical scholarships. Of course you cannot make sure that every home in the Gaeltacht will benefit directly, but the aim should be that many of the homes there will benefit and that the teaching profession particularly will gradually become all that we would wish it in the matter of mastery of the Irish language. I think that not quite enough people from the Gaeltacht have entered the preparatory colleges. I do not know whether enough people are entering them yet. I would like to see at least half of those entering the preparatory colleges, people from the Irish-speaking homes in the Fíor-Ghaeltacht. Unless others entered the training colleges directly that would give us only 25 per cent. of the teachers in the country. I would regard that as the minimum in view of public opinion and in order to prevent this revolt which Deputy Dillon is conscious of in another direction.

I do not say that you should draw all the teachers from the Fíor-Ghaeltacht, but you could get a very big proportion. If we could encourage young people from the Irish-speaking districts to enter the preparatory colleges, that would enable us in the course of a few years to have teachers emerging who would be prepared to enter schools all over the country, and we would then be able to attain a real mastery of the Irish language because those teachers would be able to teach all subjects through the native language. When they would become competent as teachers I feel they would be more successful than the older teachers could be in the actual task of imparting instruction through the medium of Irish.

There are a few things I should like to say in connection with the Gaeltacht. In these circumstances, one of the things we ought to aim at is that the very best national teachers and the very best national schools will be found in the Gaeltacht, if we are to accept the principle that, both in the interests of the language and of the Gaeltacht areas themselves, the best thing we can do is to educate the people. That would be an answer to what Deputy Kissane said with reference to giving equal grants to teachers in the Gaeltacht. To have the best schools and the best teachers in the Gaeltacht is most important and a lot of people do not realise that.

I heard very recently a man, who was very sympathetic to Irish, talking about a case in which a nun, who was the only nun very competent in Irish in a school in the Gaeltacht, was transferred by her Order to a bigger and more important school, where she would be teaching Irish. He thought that was perfectly satisfactory; that nuns who were not so well up in Irish were perfectly all right for the Gaeltacht. Of course, the fact was that work was being done which was not so important in some big school in some town, and that the Gaeltacht children were not getting the respect for the language and the education in the language that they could have been given if the right point of view prevailed.

My own belief about the task of saving the language is that the City of Galway is a key point. I think that if we cannot Gaelicise the City of Galway, where, according to the census, there is a forty-six per cent. Irish-speaking population, with one of the biggest Irish-speaking areas adjacent to its borders, then we have no hope of Gaelicising towns like Kilkenny or Drogheda; that there is no chance of succeeding with the general task. On the other hand, if we had even one town in the whole country that was Irish-speaking, a great many difficulties that at present exist would be to some extent removed. For instance, one of the ways in which Welsh in any county in Wales is very much better than Irish is here is that in the shops and streets of the towns you can hear the Welsh language. I remember being in Carnarvon once on a Bank Holiday, moving through the streets, which were crowded with people from the city and the country, and not hearing a single word of English spoken. If you went into a shop you would not be addressed in the first instance in English. There is a town life for Welsh there which made it possible to have weekly newspapers with all the ordinary news in the language of the country. If we could have even one town which is Irish-speaking the dangers that I see would be to a very large extent removed. I think that Galway is the urban area that ought to be and could be Gaelicised, and I think it ought to be the consistent policy of the Government to aim at that. The very existence of the College there would be a big factor if it were Gaelicised. I think there should be special pressure and inducements in respect of the technical, national and secondary schools in the City of Galway to induce them to fall in with the plan of Gaelicising that city.

In that connection, and it has also a broader bearing, I wonder would the Government think the time has arrived when there ought to be a national matriculation for University entrants, in order that the standard of Irish required for matriculation would be raised and there would not be a question of one institution which does not require it competing with an institution which does require it and the standard being kept down? All the students going into Galway College then would have sufficient knowledge of Irish to take instruction in Irish, so that, according as Professors and Lecturers who were competent could be obtained, the work of the College could gradually be turned over to the Irish language. I think that that particular matter has been mentioned before. It was a matter that obviously could be left over for a period. But, I am inclined to think that the time has now come when, if there is to be progress in University work in Irish, it has to be faced. Naturally, what I say would only apply to students who are the children of persons domiciled here.

The Minister referred to "A" schools. There has been a steady increase. Apart from the Preparatory Colleges, however, I wonder is there any boys' boarding school that has become an "A" school? I know that none had until recently, and, if none has, I believe that some effort should be made to provide further inducements in that direction. In that connection, I should like to mention one other matter. The work of giving a full secondary course through Irish was an experimental matter when the Preparatory Colleges were set up. It was necessary to have a minimum curriculum in the beginning, because of the difficulties, but I would be inclined to think that the time has arrived when the curriculum in the Preparatory Colleges might be extended somewhat; that, at any rate, students would be taught some Latin so that matriculation would be no difficulty to them later on. In addition to that, as there has now to be a lower course in modern languages, there should be at least a lower course in French and German in some of them. I think that while there are worse courses pursued in certain schools, courses that are essentially narrower than the course in the Preparatory Colleges, nevertheless the time has arrived when the Government might face the business of introducing some extra subjects in the Preparatory Colleges.

One of the things that we are faced with in this is in line with some of the things of which Deputy Dillon spoke. One of the difficulties that we are faced with is keeping standards up. In the effort to do something about Irish everywhere it had to be done. There is a danger that we would not require the work to be of as high a standard as it ought to be. I think there are various Inspectors who are not as rigid, who have not as high ideas about the question of what should be required in Irish as they ought to have. I believe it is necessary to give constant attention to the task of raising the standard of the work that is being done. Necessarily, in the beginning, in many of the national schools the work in Irish had to be of a very low standard because the qualifications of the teachers were minimum qualifications. Necessarily, also, in the secondary schools many teachers were not as highly competent in Irish as would be desirable and the standards had to be moderate standards. But the pressure ought to be to raise the standard, because if we were to have a generation of people coming out of the schools, having learned Irish with only a very unsatisfactory grip of it, you might have effects upon public opinion that would not be all that we would desire.

There is one thing I should like to say in connection with the work of An Gúm. I have seen in the past lists of books that were in hands, as well as lists of books that had actually been published, and what I noticed was that apparently translators were not willing to undertake books that would be more difficult to translate, books in which there were difficulties of technical terms. In the case of subjects that had not been dealt with or anything written on in Irish before I think there is a certain unevenness in the progress of the work. I think that efforts ought to be made to give special inducements or put special pressure on translators to tackle some of the classes of work which they have been fighting shy of up to the present.

The Minister referred to the technical vocabularies which are being published and to the English-Irish dictionary which is being prepared by Father McKenna. As I understand it, the dictionary that Father McKenna is preparing is an extension, an enlargement, of his phrase dictionary. Now, no matter how much an enlargement there may be of the phrase dictionary, which is a very valuable book—I am sure the enlargement will also be extremely valuable—there will still be left a gap unfilled. If anyone goes through the last Ua Duinnín dictionary he must be struck by the enormous wealth of Irish words that are to be found there. It might often happen that a person who wanted to discuss, either verbally or in writing, some rather unfamiliar subject, something that is not a fireside subject in the Gaeltacht, if he had time to go through the Ua Duinnín dictionary he would find the words to meet the want he felt, but unless he read the dictionary from beginning to end he might not light on the particular word he was in search of.

It would be a relatively easy task to have a dictionary prepared which would, in fact, be a key to Ua Duinnín containing language examples that would enable a person who had the English word to turn it up and see if there was an equivalent in Ua Duinnín. The task of preparing a key of that sort would require far less in the way of qualifications than, say, the work on which Father McKenna is engaged. It is the sort of work that, I think, it would be relatively easy to find people competent to do and also work that could be done in a relatively short time. I think it would be desirable if the Ministry would consider putting in hand a dictionary of that sort.

There is one other thing I would like to say, and it is that it is important to try to get all parents to take a reasonable point of view about the work that is being done in the schools in relation to Irish. I think there is a terrible disposition to blame the Irish policy for things that it should not be blamed for, things with which it is in no way connected. If a parent has a stupid child he does not believe that the child is stupid, but goes out proclaiming at the top of his voice that it is the dreadful Irish policy that is being pursued at the present time that is responsible. If a teacher is in some way less efficient than the average in his profession, and if the results are not just as good as they are in other schools, the parents do not even look at the other schools, but blame the language policy. In every country as far as I know there are terrible complaints about schools. I have seen in English newspapers practically all the complaints about English schools that Deputy Dillon has made here. I have seen how in Liverpool, I think, children coming from school cannot spell or tot up: that they are generally neglected, only that in Liverpool they have not the Irish language to blame. If anything could be done to try and get reason into the minds of parents, I think it would be well because one positive harm that is being done by the practice of always blaming the language policy in the schools is that if the children hear it attacked at home it means that they are not able to get as much benefit out of the instruction in the schools as they ought to.

I am satisfied that, whatever changes do take place politically in the country, there is going to be no reversal of the policy of preserving the Irish language. We might do harm, and harm could easily enough be done, as Deputy Dillon said, by a lack of discretion or a lack of consideration in carrying out the policy, but the result would not be what Deputy Dillon fears. I think it would only be a forcible agitation for changes in the method by which the policy is being carried out. I do not believe that the policy will be reversed, and I think if parents and everybody concerned could be convinced that here was something that was going to stand whatever political changes might take place, they might be induced to stop the educational sabotage that is involved in continually complaining in the presence of their children of the teaching of a subject which the children have to learn.

I was rather surprised at the onslaught that Deputy Dillon made on the national schools and on the national teachers. I can only attribute it to complete ignorance on the Deputy's part as to the actual facts. I have over twenty years' experience as a teacher. I went through the period mentioned by Deputy Dillon, and I may say that I do not think at all that the standard of education to-day is lower than it was fifteen or 20 years ago, as Deputy Dillon said. It appears to me that Deputy Dillon has drawn general conclusions from a few isolated examples, and I think that is absolutely unfair. My own experience is that the standard to-day is as high as ever it was, and if it is not, I wonder are the inspectors of the national schools all hypocrites. They have classed many schools as highly efficient and many national teachers as highly efficient and quite a number of others as efficient. Are the inspectors then all incompetent, or are they all hypocrites? I do not think it is right for Deputy Dillon or for any Deputy to make such a sweeping statement about the national schools of the country or the work done by the national teachers.

Then, again, the Deputy assumes that the teacher will not know any Irish. Why does Deputy Dillon assume that the national teachers do not know any Irish? He seems to think nobody can speak Irish except those who are natives of the Gaeltacht. I do not come from the Gaeltacht, but without any boasting whatever I think I can say this: That I can go into the Gaeltacht and carry on a conversation fluently with the people there. I am not a star by any means and never was, but I know that there are hundreds and even thousands in the country who are quite capable of carrying on a conversation fluently with the people in the Gaeltacht. I say, too, that the national teachers are quite capable of giving instruction in the national schools in history, geography and other subjects through the medium of the Irish language. Deputy Dillon referred to what I think he called "Pidgin Irish." I do not know what he means.

When a teacher is capable of going to the Gaeltacht, and carrying on a conversation fluently in Irish I do not see why he should not be qualified to give instruction in Irish to his pupils in the different subjects he is teaching, or may have to teach. If we are to accept Deputy Dillon's views, then, the nation will have to wait until some miracle occurs when Irish will have spread from the Gaeltacht to the Galltacht. The people in the other counties, apparently, would have to do nothing until that happens and would have to pursue a policy of total inactivity in that respect. That certainly cannot be. The work of instruction in the Irish language must be carried on, or else cease, and, by the time Deputy Dillon's policy would have matured, there would be no Irish in the Galltacht. I am not sure that there is not, to-day, a better spirit in the Galltacht than in the Gaeltacht and that there is not as much enthusiasm on the part of the teachers in the Galltacht as on the part of other teachers. I believe there is.

I do not agree with Deputy Dillon in what he said about the lowering of the state of education in the different subjects in the seventh standard. From my own experience I know that that is not right; but there is one thing to which I would like to draw attention. There is an idea, at the moment, and it comes from the Education Office, that pupils must be promoted no matter what their standard of intelligence. It seems to be the general idea of the Minister's Inspectors that unless a pupil is described as mentally deficient he must be promoted to the higher standards. I think that is wrong, and I think it is time it was stopped. There is no use suggesting that all pupils in a particular standard will be of the same intelligence, and it is ridiculous to force pupils, not fit for promotion, from one standard to a higher standard. It is injurious to the unfit pupils promoted and also to the pupils fit to be promoted. I think that policy should be changed. It is the policy, at the moment, to force pupils into the higher standards whether they are fit or not. If there is anything in what Deputy Dillon has said I say it is because pupils are promoted to higher standards for which they are not fit.

When pupils reach the seventh standard parents take them from school. From the day I started as a national teacher I have been teaching Irish, and I never experienced any revolt. I have never seen the faintest sign of it though at one time I was teaching in a town that could not be described as a Gaeltacht town. I have never seen any evidence of that revolt amongst the parents. I heard what Deputy Blythe said, that parents who have rather stupid children complain of the advance of those children, but in these cases the parents themselves are not over-intelligent, and that is where you find the exception taken. As a general rule I found that there was no interference with the teacher or any other persons connected with education. I do not think it is fair to say that there is a revolt against the Irish language. There never has been any in my experience. I would like that people speaking upon this subject should have some general knowledge before they make statements of that kind, but those who speak about revolts have no such general knowledge. I do not intend to delay the House any longer as I know that many other Deputies are anxious to speak upon this subject.

Chuir mé ceist ar an Aire Oideachais cé mhéid scoileanna sa nGaeltacht a raibh idir 70 agus 90 bpaistí ionnta, agus dubhairt sé go raibh 15 scoil. Chuir mé ceist air annsin thárla a laighead sin acu ann, an gcuireadh sé congantóir eile ins na scoileanna sin. Dubhairt sé liom labhairt leis ina oifig faoi'n scéal. Acht nuair a labhair mé leis annsin, dubhairt sé nách bhféadfadh sé rud ar bith a dhéanamh faoi'n gceist. Bíonn an tAire Airgid ag scaipeadh airgid ar a lán rudaí ach ní raibh airgead aige le congnamh ceart a thabhairt don Ghaedhilg sa nGaeltacht. Ní fhéadfadh sé airgead fháil le 15 múinteoirí eile le cur isteach sa nGaeltacht.

Bhí a lán le rá ag an Teachta Diolún mar gheall ar an nGaedhilg agus an tslí a chuireann sé na leanbhaí ar gcúl i gcúrsaí léighinn. Anois tá scoil amháin i bparráiste Charna, Scoil Ardshiar. Scoil í sin nách mbeadh náire orm an tOllamh Diolún ná aon Ollamh eile í 'fheiscint. Nuair a rachas sé go dtí an scoil cloisfidh sé teanga ár seacht sinnsear á labhairt innte. Níl sa scoil sin ach múinteoir amháin agus ní fear óg é mar dubhairt an Teachta O Cíosáin. Tá sé féin agus a bhean ina múinteoirí annsin le 30 bliain. Le sé bliana anuas tá sé ag cur páistí isteach ar na scrúduithe i gcoir na gColáiste Ullmhúcháin. Chuir sé 5 páistí isteach i mbliana ar na comortaísí sin agus d'éirigh le ceathrar acu. Bhí an cúigeadh duine chó maith sin gur thóg na mná rialta í. Chaill sí an post le chúpla marcanna.

An bhfuil aon scoil nó coláiste in Eirinn á dhéanamh a leitheide sin? Dubhairt an Teachta Diolún nárbh fhéidir le 20 faoi'n gcéad ós na scoileanna sin scoláireacht d'fháil. Cuir an scoil sin i gcomparáid le aon scoil nó Coláiste sa tír. Níl an cháil cheanna ar aon scoil in Eirinn ach fós níorbh fhéidir leis an Aire Airgid a thuille congantóirí a chur inti.

Bhí a lán athais orm i dtaobh an chaint a dubhairt an Teachta de Blaghd mar gheall ar an nGaillimh. Tá cathair na Gaillimhe i gceart lár na Gaeltachta. Na daoine a bhí i gcoinne na Gaedhilge ar dtús siad is mó atá ar thaoibh na Gaedhilge anois. Bheadh bród orm dá mb'fhéidir coláiste fíor-Ghaedhealach a dhéanamh de Choláiste na Gaillimhe. Deirim aris má bhíonn an tAire Airgid chó cruaidh-croidheach faoi'n a chuid airgid fágfár slán agus beannacht leis an nGaedhilg.

There is one matter under this Vote to which I would wish to allude. It is in connection with the pensions paid to two officials of the Education Board. These are two exteachers of board of guardians in Cork——

May I enquire whether this is in order? In my view this is a matter for the Minister for Local Government and Public Health.

Is it provided for under this Vote?

Then if it is not provided for under this Vote it is out of Order.

My reason for raising the matter was that a sealed order sent to the council was signed by the Minister for Education.

Yes, when I was acting as substitute Minister for the Minister for Local Government and Public Health.

I do not know whether I can go on with this——

I know the Deputy cannot if it is not provided for in this Vote.

The point I wish to make outside of that is that two teachers who were drawing money under this Vote are drawing pensions also——

No, that is not the point.

But the salaries are on this Vote.

I must ask Deputy Corry to sit down.

Their salaries are on this Vote.

The Deputy is raising a point about pensions. Has the Deputy anything to say to convince the House that these teachers should not be paid their salaries?

The Deputy is raising a matter about the salaries of two teachers?

Yes. These two teachers have been transferred or, if you wish, they have been sent from one school to another. They are at present drawing salaries as principal teachers of two schools. At the same time they are held to be entitled to large pensions from the Board of Guardians. I maintain that they should not be employed as principal teachers while drawing pensions.

This is a matter for the Minister for Local Government and Public Health. It is a question of superannuation under the Superannuation Act of 1919.

I am absolutely refusing to hear the Deputy on the matter of pensions. I do not know what other matter he wants to raise.

Well, in that case the only matter I can raise on this Vote is as to whether two men at present in receipt of pensions should at the same time be employed by the Department of Education, thus drawing salaries and pensions together. Is that in order?

The point the Deputy wants to raise is that they are employed as teachers. I cannot consider under this Vote whether they are drawing pensions. That is a matter outside the control of the Minister for Education.

The position is a peculiar one. These two teachers were employed for a short period as teachers in the Union. As a result of the amalgamation scheme their services in the Union ended. Then they were immediately employed as principal teachers in two national schools which really is a transfer of their services from one school to another. Then we have the position that these two teachers are employed under the Board of Education, and as such are drawing their salaries while they are also held to be entitled to large pensions under another Department. That is a thing on which I would like to have a statement from the Minister for Education. One of these two gentlemen is held to be entitled to a salary of over £800 a year. The other has a salary of £700 odd, and the ratepayers have to pay them in addition pensions of £80 and £74 a year. Why two teachers in receipt of these large salaries should have pensions I cannot understand. Why these teachers should also be carried on the Vote for the Board of Education as principal teachers in national schools when there are undoubtedly plenty of well-educated young men through the country awaiting vacancies and awaiting employment, is a matter which I think the Minister should consider. I understood that this matter could be dealt with under this Vote. I do not wish to press it further, only to point out this discrepancy to the Minister. When there are at present numbers of unemployed teachers in the country it is not right that men who are drawing pensions should be teaching at the same time. I know there is any number of qualified national teachers quite fit to take over charge of these schools. I do not see why that condition of affairs should continue, and that men should be unemployed whilst the teachers in these schools are actually in receipt of pensions. I would ask the Minister to consider this matter at once.

Níl a lán agam le rá ar an meastachán so; ach tá cúpla ceist agam le cur ar an Aire Oideachais. An bhfuil an Ghaoluinn ag dul ar agaidh ins na bun-scoileanna? Sé no seacht de bhlianta o shoin do cuireadh fo-choiste ar bun, chun a fheiscint cadé an tslí a b'fhearr na scoileanna do Ghaolú. An mo duine fén gcéad de sna leanbhaí fhágann na scoileanna gach bliain go bhfuil sé ar a gcumas an Ghaoluinn do labhairt agus do léigheamh go maith? Mar an féidir leo é sin a dhéanamh, ní eireoidh linn go deo na scoileanna do Ghaolú. Is éageóir ar na leanbhaí sa Ghalltacht gan aon Bhéarla do labhairt leo i scoileanna na naoidheanán, ná aon Bhéarla do mhúineadh dhóibh agus gan aca féin ach Béarla, agus gan ach Béarla á labhairt agus á chlos aca lasmuigh de'n scoil.

An fhaid atá an sgéal mar sin sa Ghalltacht, tá na múinteoirí sa Ghaeltacht ag briseadh a gcroidhe ad' iarraidh Béarla do mhúineadh do leanbhaí na Gaeltachta! Clár cruaidh atá acu atá ar aon dul leis an gclár atá ann i gcóir Béarla sa Ghalltacht. Tá éifeacht na scoile ag brath ar an gcuma 'na múintear an clár san. Níl aon chlár ceart ann i gcóir na Gaedhilge mar abhar léighinn sa Ghaeltacht ná sa Ghalltacht. An bhfuil an tAire sásta le staid na Gaedhilge ins na scoileanna? Ní dóigh liom go bhfuil. Mara bhfuil, an gcuirfe sé Coiste Fiafriúcháin ar bun chun an scéal d'infhiúchadh, féachaint conas is féidir na scoileanna go léir do Ghaolú fé mar a cheap an National Programme Conference? Tá obair mhaith á dhéanamh ag na múinteoirí ar son na Gaoluinne, ach tá a lán d'obair tháchtaigh le déanamh fós. Tá súil agam gur fearr a déanfar an obair sa mbliain seo chughainn ná mar a deineadh í go dtí so.

A Chinn Comhairle: When discussing these Estimates on a previous occasion I drew attention to a rather serious factor that one would like a little more attention directed to. In many of our city national schools there is, at the moment, and has been in existence for some time, very serious overcrowding. The effect of that is obvious. One of the outstanding effects is that it is bound to lower the standard of education in these particular schools. Another factor, which is of very serious importance, is that many parents are anxious to keep their boys and girls at school after the age of fourteen years. They are told in those schools —I know a case that came to my knowledge within the last few weeks and that is still in existence—that they cannot be kept after fourteen years. We are anxious to raise the standard of the school-leaving age, and we are anxious to raise the standard possessed by the pupils in these schools, but owing to the serious overcrowding we cannot get it done. Those who were members of this House in 1927 and 1928 will recollect very clearly that, when we were discussing the School Attendance Act in those years, it was the unanimous opinion of the members that it was desirable, in the interests of young people and in the interests of industry, to raise the school-leaving age.

In that particular Bill the Minister had authority to raise the school-leaving age from fourteen to sixteen years, and to put it into force in areas where it is possible to do so, but the congestion in the schools has prevented that particular section of that Act from being put into force anywhere in the Free State that I know of. The Minister pointed out very fairly that these schools were over-crowded at the moment, and that if we were to retain in the schools pupils who would leave in the ordinary way at fourteen up to the age of sixteen it would be impossible to take in the younger people—a difficulty that we find existing at the moment. I would like the Minister, as I said, to give some serious attention to this matter.

Deputy Dillon has complained to-day, and complained with justice, that the standard possessed by our young people leaving the primary schools is much lower than it should be. I hear that complaint commonly made by employers. They say that the young people who come along to them are not properly educated. Possibly it is that employers expect more of young people to-day than they did in by-gone years, but whatever the cause be the fact remains that complaints are made widely of the low standard of education possessed by young people coming into industry to-day. Now, a Chinn Comhairle, we have had very considerable discussion on the question whether all education in our schools should be given through the medium of Irish. That is the policy of the Department. One has spoken on that particular aspect of this question in this House on many occasions, but I would like those who are in charge of the important work of education in our country to consider what is the object of education. Is it to give young people a thorough knowledge of Irish, or is it to prepare them for the task that lies before them in whatever sphere they may be placed? It does not seem to me that the two objects are synonymous.

I have the greatest sympathy with enthusiasts like Deputy Blythe and others for the Irish language, but I would draw the attention of these enthusiasts to the fact that we must prepare the young people to face the conditions as we find them, not as we should like them to be, and in our enthusiasm we must not sacrifice the lives of these young people. In our cities I have the greatest sympathy for the parents who complain that their young people come home from school where they are taught wholly through the medium of Irish, they are unable to assist those young people in the home work as they would like to do. The whole of that home work—the whole of the school work—is taught through the medium of Irish. Parents are unable to give them any instruction through the medium of that language and secondly they are debarred from giving the assistance to their children they would like to give to them. Now I do not like, and I do not want, to stress this particular aspect of the problem unduly, but I would urge that in the minds of many too much attention is being devoted to the necessity for teaching Irish rather than preparing these people for the careers that lie before them. Now I pass on to another aspect of the educational problem that I have taken some interest in, and for which I would like some information from the Minister. I refer to the progress that is being made with vocational education.

The Minister will remember that in the report of the Technical Education Committee that was set up some five years ago considerable stress was laid on the importance of continuation and vocational education, and some efforts have been made to carry out their particular work, but I am afraid it is not being pressed with the enthusiasm which is necessary. It is common knowledge that industry to-day requires bright, well-educated young people. Any of us who make enquiries through the juvenile department of the Labour Exchange find that well-educated juveniles are much more easily placed than those who are more backward, and for that reason, in order to try and prepare these young people to get employment our object ought to be to try and train them to meet with conditions which will render them more readily absorbable into employment. In the report of that important Commission it was recommended that vocational schools should be set up in the various areas and that young people who were not in employment between the ages of 13 and 16 ought to be compelled to attend these vocational schools. In the vocational schools these young people would be taught what work is, and when they came along afterwards to an employer and the employer says to them "What do you know about industry?" They would be able to say: "We have had training in a vocational school in particular forms of work and we have made considerable progress."

Would the Deputy guarantee them employment then?

I am afraid the question of guaranteeing employment does not arise. What we want to do is to try and make young people, as I said, more readily absorbable into industry, and I do not think it needs any words of mine to stress for the Minister the difficulty a young person finds himself in who goes to an employer looking for work, and the employer says: "What do you know about work?" If the young person says: "I know nothing about work; I have not done any work," the employer naturally says: "You are no use to me."

It is to meet that known difficulty— known just as well to the Minister as to others of us—that the recommendation was made in connection with vocational and continuation schools. What I want to know from the Minister is what progress has been made in connection with the development of vocational education. I notice that in the Estimate for technical education, which covers vocational education, there is a decrease this year. While there is a large increase in the Estimate for primary education, there is a decrease in the Estimate for technical instruction. I agree that it is not a large decrease, but it was the feeling of the House in previous years that a little more could be spent on technical and vocational education with advantage to the country. I do not say that too much is being spent at the moment on primary education, but I should like to see some reduction in the cost of primary education and a corresponding increase in the Estimate for vocational and technical education.

I have said that industry requires well educated young people. I hope it will be the object of our education department to train our young people so as to make them more acceptable to industry. Stress has been laid by Deputy Dillon on the fact that these young people ought to be trained in different trades. I do not propose to enter into the details of that matter at present. In the present condition of our trades, that would not be a very useful work. The difficulty is that, after these young people have spent important years of their lives in training for particular trades, they are unable to get into those trades. Some of our trades in the City of Dublin are confined entirely to the sons of those already engaged in them. In the case of a number of other trades, there are limitations as to the numbers of young people who can be absorbed into them. Positions must be kept in many of them for descendants of those already in the trades and there are even limitations as to the numbers that can be absorbed into those trades. That is a very big problem and I do not want to go into it here. But there would be no use in young people spending the most important years of their lives in preparing for particular industries unless they can obtain entrance to the industries selected. These are problems which the Minister might like to inquire into. I am glad that his mind is turning in that direction, seeing that he asked "can we guarantee them employment?" I should like that young people fitted by nature for particular industries should have an opportunity of getting into those industries. It is unfortunate that barriers should be placed in their way. I should like to know from the Minister, when replying—I hope he will not mind saying it in English— what progress exactly has been made in the matters to which I have drawn attention.

Seán Ua Guilín

Ní aontuím leis an méid adubhairt Mac Uí Dhioluin, Teachta, ach caithfidh mé a admháil go raibh cuid den cheart aige. Caithfimid ár ndícheall do dhéanamh chun na daoine in aiteacha ar fud na tíre do shású. Dubhairt an tAire go raibh cuid maith sgoláirí ag fágáilt na scoileanna agus nach raibh ach beagán Gaedhilge acu. Tá eagla orm gur fíor san. Tá a lán páistí ag fágailt na scoileanna, tar éis cúig no sé bliana a chaitheamh ag foghluim na Gaedhilge, agus gan focal Gaedhilge acu. Ní maith liom san a rá ach is fíor é.

Ce'n sórt muinteóirí atá sna sgoileanna san?

Seán Ua Guilín

Ní fheadar. Is minic a bhí mé ag caint leis na páistí ar an mbóthar agus ag iarraidh focla Gaedhilge do bhaint asta. Ach do theip orm. Níl a fhios agam cé atá ciontach leis sin. Nuair a bhí mé ag labhairt ar an meastachán so cúpla bliain ó shoin, dubhairt mé nach raibh an sprid ceart sna scoileanna. Dubhairt an Teachta O Ciosáin iniú go raibh easbaidh sprid sa dteagasc i gcuid de na scoileanna. Is baoghalach gur fíor san. Tá an Ghaedhilg a múineadh sna scoileanna mar abhar léighinn agus tá na páistí cortha dhi. Is minic a deireann na páistí, nuair a cuirtear ceisteanna ortha, "O! an tsean-Ghaedhilg sin." Dá mba rud é go raibh an sprid ceart acu, ní abróchadh siad sin. Is baoghalach nach bhfuil an sprid ceart acu sna scoileanna agus go dtí go mbeidh, ní bheidh aon dul ar aghaidh ar an dteangain. Dubhairt Earnán de Blaghd, Teachta, go mba ceart iarracht do dhéanamh chun na bailte móra do Ghaedhealú. Ba dheacair sin do dhéanamh. Tá eagla orm nach mbeadh sé in ár gcumas na siopadóirí, na dochtúirí agus na sagairt sna bailte móra do Ghaedhealú.

Every year we hear the same complaints—so far I have not heard them this year—on the question of Irish in the schools. One complaint we do hear is about the question of books. In these hard times we hear many complaints from poor people about books. Every year they have to buy so many shillings worth of books for their children. The books used by one child this year cannot be used by the next child the following year and parents are put to very considerable expense in the purchase of new schoolbooks. Would it not be possible to alter that and go back to something like the old standard readers, so that the books could be passed on from one child to another as they moved from grade to grade. It would save great expense. It might look a small thing to some, but it is a very big item in the budget of people in the country.

I wonder are we crowding too much into the primary course? Is that one of the reasons for the complaints that are made about children coming from the primary schools who enter business life that their minds have been confused in an endeavour to cram too much into them? Personally, I think that in the days when children in primary schools were taught mainly the three R's they had really a sounder foundation on which to build up their education in after life. Children coming from these schools now are so tired and so weary of study that they throw their books away when they leave and never make the slightest attempt to enlarge their education. I think it would be better if they had a certain amount of learning, and if an effort were made to get them, when they leave school, to continue their education, instead of packing all that was possible into them, so that they go out into the world stale, so to speak, and with an absolute distaste for any education. Deputy Good spoke of vocational education. There is not much sign of it in the country. The Deputy's argument with reference to vocational education was a rather good argument for a tariff policy. If we educate young people vocationally we must have some place to put them afterwards. Up to this our young people emigrated whether they were educated or not. They cannot emigrate now, and if we teach them technically or vocationally we will have to find some place for them.

Would the Deputy enquire why we cannot get them into trades when they are trained?

Because we have not the trades.

We have trades, but we cannot get them into them.

If we trained them vocationally we would get them into trades.

Let the Deputy try. I have been trying it for many years, and so have others.

That is a reason for giving them a good vocational and technical education. The tendency so far in this country has been to make our young people seek positions away from trade and away from any form of industry. They want to be civil servants, or to be in positions of a similar kind.

A Deputy

T.D.'s.

Yes, T.D.'s. That tendency should be ended. We should endeavour to get more young people into manual work; to get out of the minds of our people the idea that manual work is degrading, and that nobody is respectable except those in what the Americans call "white collar jobs."

Vocational education will do that.

That is why I am keen on seeing it going forward. We want our young people educated into the belief that manual work is not degrading, and that a man can be a gentleman, and a thoroughly respectable member of society, although he works with his hands. Our technical education has not been effective so far. I am afraid that is due, perhaps, to the fact that there was no idea before it beyond making a certain number of young men in the country handy in making little things around a house, or providing amusement on winter evenings. I have been criticised for saying that, but we have had technical education here for 25 years and the results have not been much to boast of. In the rural districts the agricultural classes are not well attended, and there is a disposition amongst practical farmers to despise the work of these classes. We should make every effort to get working farmers to take more advantage of these agricultural classes. They say we are sending around Instructors who do not know as much about the work as those they are sent to instruct. I do not believe that at all. Unfortunately the tendency amongst the agricultural population is to ridicule the instruction we are inclined to give them. I do not know how that difficulty can be got over. The practical working farmer considers that the technical training we give is not suitable for his work.

Then there is the question of entrance examinations to the Civil Service. I think those who possess the Leaving Certificate with honours should be allowed to enter the Service without further examination. It looks to me to be a duplication to insist on pupils passing another examination, after passing that test, which should be ample to qualify for entrance to the Civil Service. I move that the debate be adjourned.

Progress reported. The Committee to sit again.
The Dáil adjourned at 2 p.m. until 3 p.m. on Wednesday, 2nd November.
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