THE EDUCATION BILL

Evening Post, Volume LXXI, Issue 135, 8 June 1906, Page 5

THE EDUCATION BILL

-— . c * — RELIGIOUS INSTRUCTION PROBLEM. fpnESS ASSOCIATION.] LONDON, 7th June. Dr. CliffoTd, addressing a Free Church demonstration at Wimbledon Common, declared that clause four of th© Education Bill would have to be deleted, otherwise the Liberal Government would have to send "passive resisterg" to gaol for refusing to pay towards tihe propagation of Romanism. The following is the clause referred to by Dr Clifford:— "The local education authority may give extended facilities for religious instruction of some special character in any transferred voluntary school in any urban area, by permitting the religious instruction given in the school tto be instruction of that special character) notwithstanding anything contained in previous Acts, if an. application is made to them for tiiose extended facilities, and if they are satisfied, after holding a publi6 local enquiry with reference to the application, that the parents of at least four-fifths of the children attending the school desire those facilities, ■ and if there is accommodation in the schools not affected by the permission given in this section for th© children attending the school whose parents do not desire these facilities. Where extended facilities are so given the local education authority may also, if they tfhitik fit, permit the teachers employed in the school to give the instruction desired, but not at tho expense of the authority."