It is only fair to say that, amid a good deal of discouragement and not always intelligent criticism, the National Board has proved itself broad-minded and open to argument wherever the interests of Irish Education have been concerned.  Although nominated by the Lord Lieutenant, and therefore not an elected body, it has never lagged behind public opinion.  In the teaching of the Irish language, for example, it has shown itself peculiarly sympathetic.  In fact, the experience of the Board has been, that the Irish parents are not quite so anxious that their children should be taught Irish as the Gaelic League would have us suppose.  Indeed, the difficulty of the Board has been to maintain sufficient interest in the subject.  Nevertheless, it has done its best.  In 1899, teaching in Irish was provided in 105 schools for 1,825 children.  In 1911, it was provided for 180,000 children in 3,066 schools, and during the same time bilingual instruction has been introduced into some 200 schools.

In spite of what has been, and is being done, further reforms in primary education are still unquestionably required, and can, moreover, be easily effected without any of the convulsions of a constitutional revolution.  The salaries of principals and assistants, especially in large and important schools, ought to be increased.  In particular, the Pensions Act needs modification, for, under the present Act, teachers who retire before reaching the age qualifying for a pension receive gratuities considerably less than the Old Age Pensions.  Even those who qualify for pensions are very shabbily treated if they retire before sixty years of age.  Building grants also should be increased, so that the constant applications for the rebuilding of bad premises could be met.[91] The teaching of infants, greatly improved by the institution of junior assistant mistresses by Mr. Walter Long during his Chief Secretaryship, can be still further improved and brought up to the English standard; and the efficiency of primary education generally can be promoted in the direction of sympathetic appreciation of the real needs of the children, regarded from the point of view of thinking human beings, and not merely as recording machines.

The following desirable improvements may also be mentioned:—­

     (a) Encouragement of the teaching of gardening in connection with
     country schools for boys, at a cost of about L2000 a year.

     (b) Provision for instruction in wood-work for pupils of urban
     districts, at central classes in technical schools, at a cost of
     about L4000 a year.