NEW EDUCATION BILL.

Evening Post, Volume LCCVI, Issue 126, 26 November 1908, Page 6

NEW EDUCATION BILL.

Mr. Runciman is the third President of the Board of Education in the Liberal Ministry to tackle the thorny subject of religious teaching in the primary schools of Great Brifcaiu. and at last there seems to be some hope of success. In 1906 Mr. Birrell introduced an Education Bill which, after a protracted mad stormy passage through the House of Commons, was wrecked by the Lords. Mr. M'Kenna's Bill of 1907 sought to solve the problem of passive resistance by relieving the local education authority of the cost of giving religious instruction in the schools, .but being threatened with passive resistance on the part of Lord Halifax and other leading Anglicans, who declared that "it favours undenominational re- ' Hgion, and undenominational religion is 1 the irreconcilable enemy of our faith," i the .Bill was never taken further than the first reafling. After a very long delay — for it was in February of last year that Mr. M'Kenna's Bill was introduced — Mr. Runciman, who succeeded him on Mr. Asquith's assumption of the leadership in April last, has introduced another measure which is regarded very hopefully, and has actually received the eulogy of The Times. The new Bill is tho outcome of negotiations with the contending religious factions, in which, however, Mi. Balfour has had no part. As it has proved impossible to get the representatives of church and chapel to come to a definite agreement, the Government is commended by The Times for taking a middle course on its own author-: ity. "Whatever the fate or the meri,^ of the Bill," says the Thunderer, "the consensus of opinion is that "this is a masterly policy. It has enhanced Mr. Runciman's political reputation, and snatched the possibility of success from the brink of failure." With Dr. Clifford supporting the Bill as "a solid gain to the educational work of the nation," and the Archbishop of Canterbury, with the alleged approval of nine-tenths of the Anglican laity, taking a similar view, there does indeed seem at last some chance of adjusting a controversy which has rankled savagely for the last six years. The fundamental principle of the Bill represents a very long step in the direction of the New Zealand system. The County Council type of school is to be made general, all religious teets are to be abolished, and all denominations are to be given the right of entry into the schools. It is difficult to over-estimate the value of the proposed abolition of religious tests, which are a plain necessity wheD tne religious lessons are to be administered by the ordinary teacners. The denominational right of entry into the schools must no doubt be during schoo- 1 hours — an important distinction from our own system ; but as it will be conceded to all denominations alike, none will have any special ground for complaint. The permission to assistant teachers to volunteer to give denominational teaching twice a week is, of course, a dangerous concession, as it opens the way for a denominational discrimination between the teachers, but it is doubtless a very wise compromise under the circumstances. A similar right is conceded to the head teachers of transferred schools — i.e., denominational 6chools taken over by the local education authority — but it is j only to operate during the next five years. What is ' commonly called "contracting out" — that is to say, the right of the voluntary schools to remain outside the national system — is to be allowed, but it will be on the condition of losing any aid from the rates and receiving a largely-increased State grant instead. This will mainly affect the Roman Catholic schools, which must' ! either accept public control, or cease to be a part of the State system j and as they do not care for either alternative, the Catholics are, of course, opposing the/ Bill. But as the Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr. 'Clifford t and tho Rev. J. Scott-Lidgett are united in favour of the Bill, and a powerful non-political committee of leading Churchmen, Nonconformists, and. education authorities nas been organised to support it, there really seems a chance, even at this late hour of the session, that the Bill may go through. Should this last compromise fail, where is peace to be found except in the secular solution?