THE DUAL SYSTEM'S FATE
By THE VEN. ARCHDEACON FOSBROOKE
CHRISTIAN education has recently taken a large place in the thought of the nation. To some extent this is no doubt due to general and somewhat lightly considered assertions about the necessity for building the new world on Christian foundations, but more particularly interest has been created by the probability of the introduction of an Education Bill at no distant date. The debate in the Church Assembly on the interim report of the National Society has aroused further discussion in the country, and the recent questionnaire addressed to its teachers by the London County Council asking what part the schools are taking in religious educa- tion has made the general .public realise that the matter must be taken seriously. I am writing from the standpoint of an incumbent who has been responsible for the administration of five parishes, two town, two country and one suburban, in each of which there have been efficient Church day-schools, and I also served for some years on an important local education authority. In addition, I have been closely connected for some forty years with various youth organisations, have been responsible for the oversight of large and active Sunday-schools (in one parish an average attendance of over one thousand), have regularly conducted children's services on Sundays and weekdays, and have prepared many hundreds of young people for the Rite of Confirmation. These things constitute a practical experience which may justify the expression of opinions which will not be generally acceptable.
This experience in connexion with Christian education, happy and strenuous as it has been, leads me to the following conclusions : 1. That the dual system has largely failed and has had its day.
2. That the Church is no longer reaping results in any degree commensurate with the time and energy required to keep that system in existence.
3. That in adopting the policy of the National Society the Church is missing one of the greatest opportunities ever presented to it for assisting the Christian education of the nation.
To deal with these points in order. No one can question the value of the work done by the Church in general, and the National Society in particular, for the secular and religious education of the nation ; it is a record of which Church people may well be proud. The inherent weakness of the dual system lies in the fact that it has led people to assume that with the coming of the Council School religious education could be left to the Church to be carried on in antiquated premises while secular education provided by the State demanded up-to-date and lavishly equipped buildings. From the point of view of national Christian education what has been the result? In the opinion of the writer, a sad and almost complete failure. The young people educated under the dual system have little or no knowledge of the Christian faith, and they see no reason fOr placing the laws of God before their own desires and inclinations. The "rising generation " consists of excellent material but with few exceptions living a life in which the Christian verities find no place. Young people know little or nothing about the Bible and even less about the Church's services or seasons. So far as elementary educa- tion is concerned, whether received in provided or non-provided schools, the permanent results from a Christian point of view are practcally nil. Young people coming forward for Confirmation are almost entirely ignorant of the simplest Christian truths. Out of forty such young people, boys and girls between the ages of fourteen and sixteen, thirty-five admitted that they had no idea what event was commemorated on Whit-Sunday. It is quite a common experi- ence to find candidates searching for the Acts of the Apostles among the pages of the Old Testament.
It is not, however, in these things that the most obvious failure of the present system is to be found. In well-organised parishes where Church schools have existed and been admirably conducted for many years, and where there are excellent provided schools with a high moral and religious tone, there is no attempt by the parents or the children who have received their education under the present system to observe the outward forms of a Christian society. The Lord's Day and Good Friday, for instance, are regarded merely as days of relaxation and amusement. In town and slum parishes not one parent or child in a hundred regards public worship as a duty. The Sunday paper and Sunday cinema occupy the time and interests of both generations. In country parishes where public amusements are not so accessible very few young people are to be seen in their parish churches, and the numbers of communicants are an infinitesimal proportion of the population. This state of affairs existed long before 1939, so the war cannot be held in any large degree responsible. I contend that any system of education which produces these results must be accounted a failure from the Christian standpoint.
The average citizen has no conception of what it costs the Church in energy, time and money to keep the present dual system in existence. The training colleges constitute in themselves a crushing burden upon the central finances of the Church, whilst the schools in many parishes are a constant financial anxiety, frequently diverting the energies of the incumbent from other more directly spiritual tasks. Observant and earnest Church people are becoming less and less inclined to perpetuate a system which pro- duces such small results in proportion to the sacrifice entailed.
The policy of the National Society, endorsed by the Church Assembly, is admittedly designed to perpetuate the present dual system. For a time it may succeed, but at what a price and with what result? It is admitted by the supporters of the scheme that a large number of Church schools must be handed over to the local authority. The Times correspondent estimates that seven out of eight of the existing Church schools will vanish. Taking it for granted that the Government will agree to a Bill which includes the provision of a fifty-fifty grant to those parishes which undertake to meet the requirements of the Board of Education, and that the arrangements for " consultation " with regard to the appointment of head and reserve teachers are included in the coming Education Bill, what must be the outcome? Controversy on the whole religious question will be revived, for it will be thought that the State is being asked to subsidise denominational teaching, and whenever a head teacher has to be appointed the possibilities of local ill-feeling between Church authorities and local education com- mittees would seem to be gratuitously provided. If the results of the present dual system, so far as they affect the Christian education of the country, are as I have stated, how much better will be those results under the truncated and provocative system now envisaged.
In any case, how long will such a system survive when a post- war Government comes to review the situation—Church schools reduced to a shadow of their former strength, and administrative difficulties increased out of all proportion to the advantages which such a system could claim? This surely is the moment for the Church which bears the title "National " to make a national gesture and to say to the country, " Christian 'education is no longer a matter for the Churches alone, it is the responsibility of Church and State alike. We Church people having done what lay in our power
for the Christian education of the nation in the past, now realise that such education is a matter for the nation and Churches com- bined, and so, without seeking any sectarian advantage, we are willing to pool all our experience, all our energies, all our material resources, in a common effort to build up a truly Christian society. We ask that on this basis the State should enter into consultation with the Churches, that there should be no spirit of bargaining on either side, but simply a common desire on the part of all concerned to build up a Christian community on the foundation of teaching which will not infringe the liberty of teacher, parent or scholar, but will at the same time guarantee equal denominational privileges to the children of all parents who desire to exercise them."
Never were the omens for some such arrangement more pro- pitious. The circular of the L.C.C. referred to above shows a eoncern in the matter which is most encouraging. The Free Churches, forgetting past controversies, are willing to co-operate, whilst the N.U.T. have admitted their readiness to take their full share in the furtherance of Christian education, providing that the inequalities of the dual system are removed. Some such solution is surely not impossible to men of good will who realise how much must depend upon the decisions which the country will shortly have to make.
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