Chapter 1 — Department of Education

Part 4 The Cussen Commission

Departmental inspectors’ reports, prior to the Cussen Inquiry, described the educational standard of certified schools as satisfactory in general; however the Cussen Report concluded that, ‘in some of the schools the work done is rather mediocre’ and the teaching staff were of ‘slender qualifications’. Artane was specifically mentioned for providing only the minimum standard of literary education. Cussen suggested a number of reasons for the disparity between educational standards in National Schools and Reformatory and Industrial Schools, one being that the school Managers were under no obligation to employ teachers trained to National Schools standard.

The lack of standardised teacher qualifications within the system led the Report to recommend that teachers in both Reformatories and Industrial Schools should have the same qualifications as teachers in National Schools. It was also recommended that teachers in certified schools should receive the same pay and conditions as National Schools teachers. This, Cussen argued, would attract qualified teachers and remove the stigma associated with working within this system. The financing for this was to come from the Vote for Primary Education.

Upon publication of these recommendations the Department of Education began the process of examining their feasibility. In 1939 a number of inspections took place in certified schools in order to examine the qualifications of the teachers and establish the basis for state grants. The reports from the inspectors show that although the Cussen recommendations stated that certified school teachers must be as qualified as National Schools teachers, in practice exceptions were made for teachers who, although not technically as qualified as National Schools teachers, were deemed to deserve the same recognition. Indeed Rule 73 of both 1932 and 1946 Rules and Regulations for National Schools provided for the recognition of ‘untrained’ teachers as National Schools teachers also. It was not until 1946 that a Department of Education circular sent to all Reformatories and Industrial Schools, stated that all religious staff must be qualified under the terms of Rule 85(6) of the Rules and Regulations for National Schools.

In February 1943, following the shift to payment of literary teachers, the Department of Education issued revised instructions to inspectors in relation to Industrial Schools. It was made clear to the inspectors that the programme of instruction in all Industrial National Schools was the ordinary National School programme, except for the Domestic Economy subjects. In furnishing a report on a teacher the inspector was to bear in mind the circumstances in which many of them had been exceptionally recognised, and thus make allowances before deciding whether to rate a teacher as non-efficient. For those teachers whose teaching efficiency was deemed unsatisfactory, the Department approved the recommendation that these unqualified lay teachers should be given other duties or retired with a pension, the cost of which was to be defrayed by the school Managers.

The Cussen Commission included a number of further recommendations with regard to education, including sending children within the system to local National Schools where possible. This policy of sending children to local schools allowed for greater contact with other children. At the time of the Report, the Commission estimated that approximately 33 percent of the schools did send their students to National Schools. This figure did not increase substantially until the 1970s.

Cussen also recommended recognising Industrial Schools as National Schools when local National Schools were unable to accommodate the children from Industrial Schools. The object was to attract more teachers into the Industrial Schools, as there was a stigma associated with working in them. The full implementation of this recommendation did not occur until 1945 when a Department of Education submission to the Government made clear the Department’s objection to the persistent inequality between National Schools and certified schools.

A number of recommendations in the Cussen Report refer to the problem of the appropriate care and education of children with intellectual disabilities. Figures provided by the Resident Managers to the Cussen Commission show that in August 1934 there were 56 intellectually disabled children (10 boys and 46 girls) in certified schools and an additional 46 children with physical disabilities (26 boys and 20 girls). However other figures show that this may have been a gross underestimation.

The Cussen Report makes reference to the general absence of legislation regarding the care and treatment of people with intellectually disabilities in Ireland and the consequent difficulty in effectively dealing with the issue within the certified school system. Overall the Report was against the idea of sending intellectually and physically disabled children to Industrial Schools. The amalgamation of children with differing educational needs was recognised as unsatisfactory and the benefits of educating these children separately was emphasised in the report.

Recommendation 33 advocated the establishment of an institution specifically for the care of intellectually disabled children with separate departments for the physically disabled under the auspices of the Department of Education. The Report also recommended that, pending a medical report, judges be empowered to send these children to specialised institutions instead of the schools: If it is found from the report of the examining doctor that the child is physically or mentally abnormal or if the doctor is unable to form a definite opinion the justice should, if the case is one calling for detention in a school, order the child to be sent to the institution especially certified for such cases.

The Secretary General of the Department of Education and Science told the Investigation Committee that ‘the Government decided...that it shouldn’t be made mandatory to have an assessment, I think that was in 1956...’. The number of intellectually and physically disabled children within the Reformatory and Industrial School system is unknown. No medical or psychological research material exists to support the figures supplied by the Cussen Report. The Kennedy Committee established that there was a significant level of educational disadvantage in the schools and there were no remedial resources available.

Br Burcet was both a teacher (1954-55) and a principal (1956-69) in Artane Industrial School. In his evidence he describes the large numbers of physically and mentally disabled children in Artane during his tenure and contends that there was a change in the type of boy sent to Artane in the late 1950s and early 60s. It is his belief that with the development of social welfare services in Ireland the demographic of the resident population of Artane began to change ‘I had a sense that more disturbed children were coming into us in the 1960s, certainly in the 1960s.’

Br Burcet attempted to introduce a special needs programme within the school. He described the resistance from the Department of Education in relation to any deviation from the National Schools curriculum. His belief was that the physical welfare of the children was the primary concern of the Department So, if you are asking me how did the Department see Artane, they were looking at it from a physical care philosophy. I would say they were quite happy.

From the 1950s, the Department’s annual reports indicated a concern that secondary education should be provided to children who would be able to benefit from it. For example, the Report of 1954–55 stated that: ‘every effort is being made to make post-primary education available to those pupils suited to such’ but the evidence is that it happened in few cases.

The annual report of 1932-33 noted that ‘a few schools have afforded promising girls special opportunities for higher education’ and this trend continued in the following years. But a 1952 document, noted that St Joseph’s, Tralee was the only boys Industrial School to send its children to secondary school. With regards to the numbers of children, approximately 250 Industrial School pupils were in post-primary education, either in secondary tops, secondary schools, and vocational schools or in vocational classes confined to Industrial School pupils. The gender breakdown is striking: 11 percent of the girls (i.e. 180) against 4½ percent of the boys (i.e. 70).

The proportion of Industrial School pupils receiving post-primary education was always very low, and negligible in the case of Reformatories. As of 1963, out of the seven schools for senior boys, only two sent boys out to local secondary or vocational schools and only one provided a full vocational course within the institution. Conversely, almost all the girl schools, with only one or two exceptions, had pupils attending outside secondary or vocational schools. In some cases the secondary school was conducted by the religious community and was located beside the Industrial School; generally, however, the girls in full-time post-primary education were receiving it outside the institutions.