Advantages & Detects Of the “National Education System”

Above : Irish School In Mid Of 19th Century

In 1830, Stanley, then Chief Secretary for Ireland, drew up a very extensive plan for Primary Education. A central Board was to be established in Dublin, consisting of Commissioners, of whom a third were to be Catholics. (This was subsequently changed to one half). These were to administer the Government grant, and arrange all details regarding the schools. Primary schools were to be built all over the country. The cost of these, as well as the salary of the teachers, should be paid by the State. Children of all creeds should be received in the schools (it was not, however, till 1892 that the Compulsory Attendance Act was passed), and taught secular subjects together. At times, the ministers of each religion should attend and give religious instruction apart to the pupils of their own persuasion, the K.C proposals were embodied in a Bill, which passed successfully Lough Parliament (1831). On the whole it was well received, both y the authorities of the Catholic Church and by the laity. Its only serious opponent was Dr. McHale.

Can be no doubt that ” National Education ” has done much good in Ireland. The proportion of illiterates amongst the populate has steadily diminished, and the poor Irishman seeking employment no longer finds his chances of obtaining it diminished by his inability to read, write, or cypher. On the other hand, the system had grave defects. The most serious of all was, not the lack merely to encourage, but the systematic attempt to discourage Nationality and Patriotism amongst the pupils. At the time of the foundation of the ” National ” schools, for at least a fifth of the children of school-age in Ireland, Irish was a mother tongue ; for most of these it was the only one they knew. Yet the official attitude taken with regard to the ancient language of Erin was that it was a barbarous jargon, which, in the interests of ” education,” should be as soon as possible forgotten. The parents too often collaborated in this evil work with the teachers trained in the Government Colleges. In many schools it was usual to attach a wooden tally to a child’s neck, on which a mark was cut every time that a word of the language, in which Patrick and Columcille and Bridget had taught and prayed, passed his lips. When these marks reached a certain number, a flogging was inflicted on the unfortunate little victim. Nor was this all. Many of the school-book used had been written in England for English children. One geography primer informed the Irish boys and girls that ” the island in which we live was not always called England ! ” Even from those prepared in Ireland all allusion to Irish history or Irish literature, all lyrics breathing a spirit of Irish patriotism, were carefully excluded. The aim of this policy was evidently to conquer the rebellious spirit which was supposed to exist in Ireland, and to produce, instead, a respectful admiration for the greatness and benevolence of England, and a wish to imitate her ways The desired end was not, however, achieved. It is true that the decay of Irish as a spoken language, which had already begun, became more rapid ; and that generations grew up possessed of little knowledge of, and consequently little reverence for, their country’s past; but that no love or admiration for England, no contentment with her rule followed, the history of the remaining decades of the nineteenth century was to show.