The scheme of continuation education for young people between 14 and 16 years, which we commonly describe as Part V of the 1930 Act, has been in operation in Cork since 1938. The total figure of young persons between 14 and 16 years then available, from the census, was 2,949. The total number at school, including primary, secondary and vocational schools, was 1,792, leaving the number not at school 1,153. As I mentioned in my statement yesterday, the actual attendance annually over a period of years has been over 900. It may have escaped the attention of some of the wise gentlemen who write for our newspapers that there are considerable changes in population in cities—in Cork as well as in Dublin, very large changes from what are described as slum areas to new housing schemes in Gurranebraher and other areas outside Cork City boundary. Of course, it is only in the city area that the Part V scheme, the compulsory scheme, operates.
I was saying last night that facilities for vocational education exist over a great part of the country and the speeches I have heard last night have encouraged me to believe that success has been achieved through the work of our vocational education committees. I was urging Deputies who are interested in the spread of vocational education and in making greater use of the facilities available to use their influence in their constituencies to see that the utmost possible use is made of these courses which are of the greatest practical value to the young people of our country. I was also explaining the reasons why the costs of vocational education seem high. In classes for practical work, I pointed out that the number of students which can be taken was not very much over 20, if so many, and that a teacher had to be provided for such a class, so that comparisons with other branches of education are rather fallacious. Then there is the question of equipment. We heard a good deal last night about the necessity for equipping our schools and I am all in favour of it. Equipment for motor engineering or electrical work is rather costly. There is also, even in connection with domestic economy classes, as well as other practical work, the cost of materials. Even where the figures of population in the area where the school is situated make it possible to have full enrolment and there is a good and regular attendance which secures the most economical return from the teaching power available, these things mean that, even where such favourable conditions exist, the cost will appear to be high. But, in most of our rural areas, our population is rather scattered. The density is very low indeed even as compared with rural areas in other countries. I am not referring to Great Britain, I am referring to comparable countries, let us say, on the Continent. Therefore I feel justified in repeating that we are giving facilities, if only they are availed of, which I am quite satisfied personally are as good and probably better than those available in any other country for the rural population.
I should like to point out that if we do not get full enrolments and regular attendances over the entire period of the courses from the students attending them we are not making the most effective use of the facilities. We are not making the best use of the teachers and we are not giving the pupil the advantage that he would have if he followed the course continuously and regularly. If we do not see that the enrolments are kept up, that the attendance is regular and that the hours the teachers spend in instruction are occupied to the best available purpose there will necessarily be a waste of effort.
There seems to be some feeling that there are fees. There are fees, but they are small fees. As Deputy O'Sullivan pointed out, vocational and technical education are practically free.
I was glad to observe that Deputies from rural areas are keenly interested in the extension of these facilities to districts which have not got them. In these rural areas we have not this advantage, that we have sufficient population to ensure that we are making as much use of the teachers as in an urban centre. We probably have not the population to keep a staff of four teachers economically employed, although we have staffs of four teachers working very successfully at a number of vocational schools in the country. In other cases we have two-room vocational schools, in areas which do not require the same staffing. Where we are not able to get the necessary attendance in the rural centre and where, even under compulsion, we might not be able to get such an attendance as to justify keeping four teachers employed at a permanent rural centre, we try, where the attendance is not so satisfactory, or less than we would wish, to employ a teacher as economically as possible. He or she conducts classes not alone in the day course, which is the ordinary continuation course for pupils from 14 to 16, but there are also night classes, and not alone are the night classes held at one centre, but at perhaps five or six centres within a radius of ten or 15 miles of the school.
I do not look on the rural vocational school as supplying only the needs of the immediate school area. I look on it as being the centre of education, not merely continuation education but adult education, for the rural population over this radius of ten or 15 miles, and that is a very important aspect of its work. As a matter of fact, in the schools that I have visited, situated in towns like Tipperary, for example, I was agreeably surprised to find that a very large number, probably a majority of the pupils, came from rural areas. I have some figures showing the numbers which come into our schools from the rural areas. I have a complete list of the enrolments at the day and evening classes under all the schemes, not including Dublin and Cork cities, and I find that so far as the day classes are concerned and excluding town residents 21.6 per cent. of the enrolments come from within three miles and 20.9 per cent. come from over three and under six miles. For over six miles the figure is 12.5 per cent. These are the figures for 1944-45. They show that approximately one-fifth came from over three miles and another one-fifth from over three and under six miles. A smaller number came a greater distance.
