In the Lords on Monday the Bishop of St. Asaph
moved the second reading of his Bill to amend the Acts relating to education in England and Wales. The Bill, which enacts that no public elementary school be maintained out of public funds unless controlled by the local education authority, abolishes religious tests for teachers in such schools, and pro- vides that while no teacher, unless be wishes it, shall be required to give any religious instruction, all teachers shall be left free to offer to give either simple Christian or distinctive denominational teaching. Undenominational teaching shall be given during school hours at the cost and under the control of the local education authority, and facilities for denomi- national teaching on three days a week for those children whose parents desire such teaching, but no part of the cost is to be paid by the local education authority. The Conscience Clause will remain in force. Only Cowper-Temple teaching will be given in provided schools in urban areas, and the same teaching during ordinary school hours in transferred schools in single areas ; but denominational religious instruction may be given in these schools on Saturdays and Sundays, though not by the school teachers. The Archbishop of Canterbury said that while he was bound to make it clear that the Bill was not officially put forward by the Church of England, he did not feel justified in opposing it. Its proposals went a long way towards settlement without sacrificing fundamental principles. The only way to settle the difficulty was to secure freedom of parental choice in all schools, and freedom for the teachers to volunteer for denominational teaching in all the schools.
