to L172 for men and L140 for women. Two-thirds of
the primary school teachers of Ireland have a salary of less than 30s. a
week. The average payment to head teachers is in Scotland 75 per cent.
and in England 48 per cent. higher than in Ireland. The general state of
inefficiency of education in Ireland may be gathered from the fact that
the Census of 1901 showed that of persons over five years of age no less
than 13.7 per cent. could neither read nor write, the percentage of
illiteracy being in the four provinces, 11.3 in Leinster, 12.5 in
Ulster, 14 in Munster, and 20.7 in Connaught. The children in Scottish
schools attend on 85 per cent. of the days on which the schools are
open, in English on 84 per cent., and in Irish schools only on 65 per
cent.; but in considering these figures allowance must be made for the
fact that school attendance in Great Britain has been compulsory for
just over thirty years, while in Ireland it was only in 1892 that an Act
was passed sanctioning the formation of School Attendance Committees
with power to enforce the attendance of children at school.

In addition to the Board of National Education there are in Dublin the
Intermediate Board, the Commissioners of Education, who deal with the
few Educational endowments in the country, the Department of Agriculture
and Technical Instruction, the Senate of the Royal University, the Local
Government Board attending to the education of children in work-houses,
industrial, and reformatory schools, all concerned with primary and
secondary education in its administrative aspect, while the Board of
Works is occupied with the erection of school buildings. The
extravagance and inefficiency which results from this diffusion and
consequent overlapping of power and duties on the part of officials
scattered about in Tyrone House, in Hume Street, in Merrion Place, and
three or four other parts of Dublin, is well illustrated by the fact
that out of every 20s. given as Exchequer aid to education--

In England and Wales
17/- goes to Education and 3/- to Administration and Inspection.

In Scotland
16/2 goes to Education and 3/10 to Administration and Inspection.

In Ireland
13/6 goes to Education and 6/6 to Administration and Inspection.

Administrative extravagance, it will be seen, is in inverse ratio to the
quality of the educational service. If we take the three Irish Boards of
National, Intermediate, and Technical Education, the total cost