ucation."

"If English primary education happens to require financial aid from the
Treasury, Irish primary education is to get some and in proportion
thereto," writes the committee. "If England happens not to require any,
then, of course, neither does Ireland. A starving man is to be fed only if
some one else is hungry.... It seems to us extraordinary that Irish primary
education should be financed on lines that have little relation to the
needs of the case."[24]

So there are not enough schools to go to. Belfast teachers testified before
the committee that in their city alone there were 15,000 children without
school accommodations. Some of the number are on the streets. Others are
packed into educational holes of Calcutta. New schools, said the teachers,
are needed not only for these pupils but also for those incarcerated in
unsuitable schools--unheated schools or schools in whose dark rooms gas
must burn daily. On the point of unsuitability, the testimony of a special
investigator named F.H. Dale was quoted. He said:

"I have no hesitation in reporting that both in point of convenience for
teachers and in the requirements necessary for the health of teachers and
scholars, the average school buildings in Dublin and Belfast are markedly
inferior to the average school buildings now in use in English cities of
corresponding size."

So if unsuitable schools were removed, Belfast would have to provide for
some thousands of school children beyond the estimate of 15,000, and other
localities according to their similar great need.[25]

Live, interesting primary teachers are few in Ireland. The low pay does not
begin to compensate Irish school teachers for the great sacrifices they
must make. Women teachers in Ireland begin at $405 a year; men at $500. If
it were not for the fact that there are very few openings for educated
young men and women in a grazing country there would probably be even
greater scarcity.[26] Since three-fourths of the schools are rural those
who determine to teach must resign themselves to social and professional
hermitage. What is the result of these factors on the teaching morale? The
1918 report at the education office shows 13,258 teachers, and only 3,820
of these are marked highly efficient.[27]

Thus the committee of the lord lieutenant.

[Footnote 1: "Ireland's Crusade Against Tuberculosis." Edited by Countess
of Aberdeen. Maunsel and Company. Dublin. 1908. P. 32.]

[Footnote 2: "Marriage