SENIOR SCHOOLS - IN RURAL AREAS [To thc Editor of THE
SPECTATOR.) SIR,—It should, I think, be borne in mind in considering this matter that a Rural Area after reorganisation becomes in fact a, " Single School Area,',' so far as the children from eleven and a half to school-leaving age are concerned.
As the law stands at present, the giving in senior schools of specific religious instruction in accordance with the doctrines of the Church of England (or. of any other religicru& body) is conditioned by the terms of the Cowper-Temple Clause of the Act of 1,870. These terms do not, however, prevent the giving of religious instruction in accordance with the Syllabus in use in schools provided by the Local Education Authority.
It is for this reason, and on account of the change which thereby results in the educational surroundings of the children of Church of England parents- transferred from a Church of England village school to a Provided Senior School, that the Act of 1936 contains provisions for grants in connexion with the building of Church Senior Schools.
The needs of Free Church parents in the matter of religious instruction are specifically dealt with by Clause iz of the Act, which contains full provision for the giving of religious instruction in accordance with the agreed syllabus, to the children of parents who desire this. This instruction is to be given in the school, and is part of the regular curriculum : it would, presumably, be given by the non-reserved teachers on the staff of the senior school at the same time as the reserved teachers are engaged in the specific religious instruction. • So- far as all subjects, other than the religious instruction, are concerned, Non-provided Senior Schools- are as com- pletely under popular control as Provided Schools. • The Act of 1936 was designed to deal with a state of things which is the result of one hundred and twenty years of past educational history. If it had been a question of writing upon a clean slate, its provisions might no doubt have been different. As a means, however, of dealing with the facts as they are, the Act may, I think, be accepted by all concerned as a reasonable and balanced arrangement, though, as in al/ balanced arrangements, no one gets all that he would like to
have.—Your obedient servant, R. E. MARTIN-,
Chairman of the Leicestershire Education Committee.
The Brand, Loughborough. •
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