in no sense responsible to
anyone, amateurs in educational matters, whose debates are carried on
_in camera_, and when they have arrived at decisions their fiat goes
forth without reason being given for changes of system or of policy, and
without opportunity being afforded for revision or appeal.

In these circumstances it is not surprising that the system of
elementary education in Ireland does not meet with the popular attention
that it should. There is no consultation on the part of the Board with
those responsible for carrying on changes which it orders, and when
innovations are introduced without reasons being offered, those who have
to apply them are not likely to do so with good grace, still less with
enthusiasm. When the arguments and reasons in favour of alterations are
unknown to the public such changes almost invariably meet with
opposition at the hands of those who have to effect them.

The multiplication of schools arising partly from the denominationalism
which so largely holds the field is accentuated by the financial system
which is adopted by the National Board. In all the schools under its
control, with the exception of the 300 convent and monastery schools,
where the State-aid takes the form of a capitation grant, the grant is
ear-marked for the payment of teachers' salaries, the largest charge
incurred by the school; and in this way the responsibility on that
account and the occasion for economy on that score of the managers is
removed, leaving to them only the control of the school buildings.
Moreover, the non-application of the capitation system of grants fails
to bring into play what would be a direct financial inducement to the
locality to improve the school attendance of the children, as would also
any system of local control. The small size of existing school areas
results in inevitable mischief, for under it the poorest districts are
those in which the school accommodation is worst, and since more money
has to be raised than in richer localities the poorer districts have to
pay most and the richest least for elementary education.

A primary effect of the larger number of schools is that the average
attendance is much smaller than in Scotland, where conditions are in
many respects similar, and side by side with the small size of the
schools goes the very low standard of salaries paid to the teachers,
which begin at L56 a year for men and L44 each for women, and advance by
triennial increments