Kieran’s Our City, Our Town Article,
Cork Independent, 14 February 2013
“Technical Memories (Part 44) – A Bill of Change
The 1930 Technical congress at the Crawford Municipal Technical Institute provided a very useful forum to discuss the Vocational Education Bill of that year. The bill would affect changes to 69 technical schools across the country. The overall total of 2,500 students was deemed a low attendance and was considered to reflect the low demand for technically-trained people in Ireland.
At the heart of the bill it was proposed that new committees would administer continuation and technical education for 14 to 16 year-olds. At the congress, continuation education was defined as “general and practical training in preparation for employment in trades”, while technical education was described as “pertaining to trades, manufacturers, commerce and other industrial pursuits”. The new committees were to be charged with the duty of setting up and maintaining vocational schools.
The bill proposed that every scheduled urban district would have their own vocational education scheme and every county would have a county vocational education one. A committee was to represent every vocational education area. The committee for a rural or urban district vocational education area would consist of fourteen members elected by the local government council. Not less than five nor more than eight would be people who are members of a council. A committee would consider all such representations made to it by persons resident in its area who had an interest and experience in educational matters, and by persons concerned in local manufactures, trades and industries. A voice would also to be given to persons qualified to represent the views of employers and employees in matters of educational interest relating to districts.
The budget of a committee would come from a portion of the rates from the local Council or the fund that was put aside as part of the Public Health (Ireland) Act, 1878 and /or the poor rate. A vocational education committee could, in accordance with a scale prepared by it and approved by the Minister, fix and charge fees for attendance at all or any schools and courses of instruction maintained or provided by it under the proposed Act.
Every vocational education committee would on or before the 1st day of December in every local financial year, prepare and submit to the Minister an estimate. When the Minister considered an annual scheme he would issue to the vocational education committee a certificate authorising such committees to demand from the rating authority for the vocational education area of such committee a financial contribution. The Minister may, out of moneys provided by the Oireachtas, make grants to vocational education committees in aid of expenditure under annual schemes in accordance with regulations made by the Minister and with the approval of the Minister for Finance.
Every course of instruction provided under the committee would consist, in the case of a compulsory course, of one hundred and eighty hours of instruction in each local financial year. Every parent of a young person resident in a district to which the continuation section was applied to would make sure that young persons attend for instruction in continuation education (unless there is a reasonable excuse for not so doing). It was proposed that if a parent did not comply with a warning duly served on him under this section, he was obliged, to cause the young person, to whom such warning relates to, to attend for instruction (unless the parent satisfied the Court that he had used all reasonable efforts). If the parent was guilty of an offence under this section; in the case of a first offence, they would be liable to a fine not exceeding twenty shillings and, in the case of a second or any subsequent offence, to a fine not exceeding forty shillings.
On the vocational side of the new Act, it was proposed that it would be the duty of every employer of a young person to send them for instruction. The local technical school was to contribute to the expenses incurred by persons resident in its area in obtaining technical education at schools or courses within or outside their area.
Mr P Bowen, President of the Irish Technical Education Association, in his keynote address on day one of the Cork congress noted that the provision of continuation education, as well as technical education, and the compulsory powers embodied in the Bill, provided a long felt need. The financial provisions would enable committees to make sure their work was more effective and useful. He deemed that the bill was an “instrument, which would enable teachers to further education in general”. It would help to link up primary education in the country with both secondary and technical education. He critiqued that it would take a number of years before the general policy outlined in the bill would become fully effective, and many difficulties would have to be overcome during the years following. The two main difficulties, he detailed, were a lack of a sufficient supply of teachers to deal with the increased numbers of students, and secondly, the lack of suitable accommodation, particularly in the country areas.
To be continued…
Wanted: looking to talk to people about their memories who attended the “Crawford Tech”, c.1930-c.1970, contact Kieran, 087 655 33 89
Caption:
678a. Capwell Road, 1933, discussed in previous articles (source: Cork City Library)