asked the Minister for Education if he will state in respect of 1951-52 and the most recent year for which figures are available (a) the number of children between the ages of 13 and 14 years attending national schools, and (b) the number of such children who had not reached the 6th standard.
Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers. - National School Pupils.
(a) The number of children between the ages of 13 and 14 years attending national schools for the years 1951-52 and 1955-56 (the most recent year for which figures are available) was 35,809 and 38,035 respectively. (b) The number of such children for each of these years who had not reached the 6th standard was 16,097 and 14,539 respectively.
asked the Minister for Education if he will state in respect of each of the years 1951 to 1956 the number of children who left the national schools, and who had reached the 6th standard but had not passed the primary certificate examination.
The particulars furnished to my Department for each school year in relation to national schools do not include the names of the pupils who left these schools during the school year. It is, therefore, not possible to state in regard to pupils who left national schools after the completion of the 6th standard what number of them had not passed the primary certificate examination. The collection of the information in question would require a very great amount of time and labour on the part of the authorities of almost 5,000 national schools and of the Department's officials, and the expenditure of such an amount of time and labour would not, I feel, be warranted.