National education, Ireland : letter from the Right Hon. Chichester S. Fortescue ... to the Commissioners of National Education in Ireland, on the organisation and government of training and model schools : together with the answer of the Commissioners, and other statements and documents referring thereto.

Carlingford, Chichester Samuel Parkinson-Fortescue, Baron, 1823-1898.

Date:: 1867

Credit: National education, Ireland : letter from the Right Hon. Chichester S. Fortescue ... to the Commissioners of National Education in Ireland, on the organisation and government of training and model schools : together with the answer of the Commissioners, and other statements and documents referring thereto. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

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will object also to tlie teachers going to professors of other persua- sions than their own, and to their sitting on the benclies with Pro- testants. just as they object to pupils going to Model Schools. In fact, the objection is not against the teachers living together so much as against their being under professors appointed by the Commissioners and not by tltemsclves. With regard to the proposal to appoint “Chaplains” for the Central Training and District Model Schools, the Committee regard such appointment as wholly unnecessary; as likely, if carried out, to entail large expense upon the State; and as tending to the introduction of religious rivalries and animosities. To place the teachers in private houses, and to pay “Chaplains” for them, would subject them to the control of the clergy and weaken the legitimate influence of the Commissioners and the professors ; who are supposed to be preparing them for the public service, and not for the purposes of ecclesiastical domination. Farther, to insist, as is proposed, that “ every teacher of a, Model School must pos- sess a certificate as to faith avd inornls of the chaplain of his own religious denomination,” is to give such chaplain a veto on all appointments, wdiich he will tdee care so to exercise that none but parties subservient to his ends shall be employed as teachers. It is not enough that a man should be of irreproachable character, but he must be sound in the “faith,” and so certified, not by a clergyman, but by “the chaplain of his own denomination”! This is a power so liable to be abused and so tyrannical, that no man should be entrusted with it. Besides, the proposal is utterly inconsistent with a United Non-Sectarian System of Education, such as Parliament professes to maintain in Ireland, and the prac- tice, begun in Model Schools, must ultimately be extended to all the National >Schools throughout the kingdom. The Committee regard, Avilh much concern, the proposal to change the principle upon which the remuneration of teachers in Ireland has hitherto been regulated. It is daily becoming more difficult to procure teachers for National Schools. This ai’ises chiefly from the fact that they are net sufficiently remunerated. Many of the present teachers have expended much time and labour in securing a high classification, and now to turn round upon them and to apportion their ])ayrnents solely according to the “ascertained results of education” would be unfair, and calculated greatly to discourage a most deserving and important class ot individuals. These “results” have all along been taken into account by Inspectors, but upon the “class” of the teacher the amount of his salary has mainly depended. To change this sys- tem would be to put the untrained and uuclassed teacher, who has indolently d<!clined the necessary study, on a level Avith the indi- vidual of highest qualification and class. The Committee Avould gladly co-operate Avith the Government and the Commissioners in endeaA'ouring to induce the people to contribute more libeially for the education of their children, autl it is mainly, they cousidei, in

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