No. 1.-REPORT UPON THE EXAMINATIONS OF TEACHERS IN APPENDIX C. January, 1852. Reports on Examination of Teachers. GENTLEMEN, I beg to submit the following Report upon the Mr. Butler. Examinations of the Male and Female Teachers, which were held during the year 1851, in the nine districts placed under my charge by the Board's minute of the 3rd of April last, by which Districts 13, 18, and 23, were removed from my superintendence, and in lieu thereof Districts 31, 32, and 33, embracing the counties of Clare and Galway, and portions of the counties of Roscommon and Limerick, were intrusted to me along with the other six districts under my charge since 1848. Time Occupied.-The whole business connected with these examinations, including the reading and noting of the written exercises, the preparing and drawing up of the classification. returns for each district, together with the time allotted to the oral examination of the several classes, occupied 78 days, during which period I attended with the respective Inspectors in 14 different places. Number of Teachers Examined. The number of Teachers examined amounted to 127 Masters, and 144 Mistresses, the great majority of them, 99 of the former and 89 of the latter, being Probationers; and of these only eight males and six females were deemed unqualified for their office, while 50 males and 46 females were considered deserving of preferment, and recommended accordingly. It is gratifying to have to state that, although several of the classed Teachers examined last year proved deficient in many respects, none was found so ill-prepared as to necessitate our recommending a depression in the classification. There were among the classed Teachers, 19 Masters and 43 Mistresses who offered themselves as candidates for promotion, and 17 of the former and 22 of the latter having acquitted themselves in a creditable manner, both orally and in writing, were in consequence returned by us to the Board as deserving of increased salaries. Besides the 19 Masters just mentioned, 69 others who were desirous of being raised in their classification, had been permitted by their respective District Inspectors to attend in Easter week as candidates for promotion, for the purpose of writing answers to the printed questions prepared for the class to which they were aspiring. But their written exercises did not, in our opinion, evince sufficient care and preparation to warrant their promotion: they were not therefore APPENDIX C. recalled to the oral examination. Had the same preliminary test I. Head of Teachers. been applied to the female Teachers similarly circumstanced, not more than 25 of the 43 would have been re-summoned. Written Exercises.—As regards the character of the written exercises, there is little to add to or alter in the general observations on this head contained in my Report of last year. Mr. Butler. The style is still deficient in neatness and perspicuity; the phraseology is loose and inaccurate; and the expressions used, even when the point of the question seems to have been apprehended, very frequently fail to convey the writer's actual notions. The orthography and the punctuation are very faulty. These defects are almost wholly attributable to the want of previous practice in composition, and of early habits of careful methodical and persevering study, and not as it has, I believe, been represented by some persons, to the great difficulty of the questions, or the very short space of time available for answering them. For, in the first place, it must be remembered, that the questions proposed to the several classes of Teachers have always been selected from the very works specified for each, and that great care and no little trouble have been bestowed on their preparation, in order that they should be within the limits laid down in the programme. Besides, the subjects they arise out of are those upon which the Teachers are daily engaged in their schools, or which they may at any time be called upon to teach. We cannot then in fairness be taxed with requiring too much of a Teacher, if we expect him to write intelligent and intelligible answers to a few questions on each of several subjects with which he is, or ought to be, perfectly familiar. No doubt, among the range of questions proposed, all do not present to every individual the same difficulty; some will be readily answered by one, which to another will appear more abstruse and perplexing, while the latter will deem a question almost beneath his notice for its obviousness which the former will be wholly unable to solve. So that after all, the difficulty of any given question is entirely relative; and a paper which at first sight may be considered as much beyond the average capacity of the National Teachers, will not be viewed in the same light when all the circumstances of each case are taken into account. Bearing this in mind, it will be found that every series of questions contains some that any Teacher of the class for which they were drawn up should be able to answer. And further, as it is not expected that every one will answer all the questions proposed, the objection derived from the shortness of the time allowed for the performance of these exercises, loses much of its weight. The exercises of the Second Class Masters for 1851, as com pared with those of the same class in the previous year, show APPENDIX C. a marked improvement in all branches except Geography; but 1. Head for the Third Class Teachers, there is a great falling off in all Inspectors' except Arithmetic, both in the number and character of the Reports on answers given. Examination of Teachers. In the case of the Schoolmistresses, the answering in Arithmetic is upon the whole better than in the previous year, and Mr. Butler. while in other respects the exercises of the Second and Third Classes are inferior in merit to those written in 1850, the First Class Teachers answered proportionally a larger number of questions, and with greater accuracy and intelligence. Oral Examination.-As regards Reading, there were only nine Masters out of 119, whose style was characterized by fluency and expression, whereas that of 63 Mistresses out of 137 is entered as satisfactory in these respects. Of the remainder, 84 Masters and 65 Mistresses are returned as reading with tolerable fluency and intelligence, but without the proper inflections or emphases. Too much attention cannot be paid by the Teachers to this most important branch; they should remember, what seems to be by them most frequently overlooked, that "with most persons, reading is an art," and that "the best readers are those who have most diligently studied their art; studied it so well, that you do not perceive they have ever studied it at all. You so thoroughly understand, and so sensibly feel the force of what they say, that you never think for a moment how they are saying it, and you never know the extent of your obligation to the care and labour of the elocutionist."* Of the answering on the other subjects of the oral examination, the following table exhibits a summary view, as compared with the general answering in 1850; taking 100 questions as the number proposed to every Teacher : APPENDIX C. I. Head of Teachers. There was but one First Class Master re-summoned to the oral examination, and he answered satisfactorily, vivâ voce, 321 questions out of 351 put to him. Abstract of Classification-Returns and Summaries.— I annex in Table A, an abstract of the classification returns and a statement of the sums paid to the Teachers as allowances Mr. Butler. towards the expenses incurred by them in attending the examinations and in Tables B and C, summaries of the results concerning the written exercises as set forth in the "Tabulated Particulars" which accompany this Report. : Inspectors' Returns.-The various details furnished in the District Inspectors' returns, regarding the state of the schools of the Teachers under examination, are given at length in the "Tabulated Particulars." From the summaries contained in Tables D and E, it will be seen on comparing them with those for 1850 appended to my last Report, that whereas the number of cases in which cleanliness has been neglected is returned as somewhat larger, a slight improvement appears to have taken place in the method of teaching, and the proficiency of the classes in both Male and Female schools. In point of discipline, the schools under Masters appear to have advanced, those under Mistresses to have declined; and while in regard to the character and extent of the instruction imparted, the number of Male schools, in which it is below the average, is greater, in both Male and Female schools, the number of cases in which it rises above the average has very considerably increased. Want of District Libraries.-It is to be hoped that the progress of the schools in efficiency and good management, will become more and more marked each succeeding year, as the exertions the Teachers are now making to pass creditably the examinations they may be required from time to time to attend, cannot but have a beneficial effect upon the nature and amount of the instruction given to the pupils. That they are all fully sensible of the advantages, as well as the necessity, of carefully preparing for those examinations, I have every reason to believe; that many with hopeful unremitting earnestness are prosecuting their studies for this purpose, it is most gratifying to know; and there can be no doubt far better results would be shown, were the difficulties and drawbacks less, which circumstances beyond their control place in their way, were assistance afforded them by means of District Libraries, or of periodical meetings, such as those held for the last three years in Mullingar, by the District Inspector, Mr. Bradford. Teachers' Meetings in Mullingar.-Of the way in which these were attended and conducted, an interesting account, |