Irish National Board of Education Launches Report

The 78th annual report of the Irish National Board of Education has just been published.

It shows that at the end of 1912, a total of 684,634 children were attending school. Of these 74.74% were Catholic, 11.85% Protestant, 11.16% Presbyterians, 1.27% Methodists and 0.98% from other denominations. A pleasing aspect of the report was that more children are attending school every day, and the average daily attendance across the year was 72.5%, the highest on record. The school building programme, and a process of closing and amalgamating many smaller schools has also been listed as a reason for higher attendances at the 8,269 schools across the country.

The Board also announced that the Treasury has made an additional £78,000 available to Irish schools for the forthcoming year, and that this will cover increases to teachers' salaries, the cost of promotions and the state contribution to the teachers' pension fund. £7,500 of this money has also been set aside to provide basic medical and dental checks for pupils while attending school.