1925-1926-1927 - Department of Education and Skills

28The average age at which the children are first admitted toschools would appear to lie between the ages of four and five,but in many cases they come in earlier, particularly during thelate spring and summer months. These young children are frequentlykept at home during the winter, or the greater part ofit; and it is not very uncommon, especially in the Monaghan area,to find a different set of pupils in winter from those of the springand summer months. Where the school is distant from thehomes the children are often not sent to school until they areseven or eight years of age.The average age at which the pupils finally left school priorto the School Attendance Act would appear to have been thirteen,but in many cases they continued to attend, especially where theinstruction was very efficient, up to the age of 14 or 15. It isfairly common to find children of 14 to 16 years returning toschool for the winter months after their period of spring andsummer labour.In the poorer localities many of the children appear to be somewhatunderfed, but apart from this, the general health of theschool-going children is good. It is to be observed, however, thatepidemic sickness is prevalent in the winter and early spring, andthat many schools had to close at various times during the pasttwo years on account of outbreaks of whooping-cough, measles,diphtheria and scarlet fever.(3) There are 1,160 ordinary national teachers in the Division.The great majority (862) are efficient, 169 are highly efficient,and 129 are non-efficient. The teachers as a body are competent,and they discharge their duties with diligence and efficiency. Agood number, consisting more especially of middle-aged and oldermen and women, are not qualified to teach Irish successfully, butthe number is, for various reasons, diminishing year by year. Theyoung trained teachers are in general doing useful work, butmany of them take some time to become thoroughly efficient Inthe practical side of their profession.There is no reliable evidence as to the extent of private studyamong the teachers, but books dealing with Irish, Mathematics,History, Methods, etc., are often to be found in the schools, andfrom this it may be inferred that a certain amount of time isdevotedto the study of these branches. It is at least certain thatthe great majority are anxious to become proficient in Irish, andthat many attend weekly classes, often at considerable inconvenience.An increasing number are providing themselves withsomeof the more recent text-books which treat of modern methodsof teachingmathematics.Comparatively few cases have come under my notice whereteachers have shown any special interest in folk-lore or in localhistory or literature; dearth of suitable and cheap text-books maypartly account for this. Even local industries, farming, the