SUNDAY COLUMN.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXIX, Issue 128, 22 July 1911, Page 2

SUNDAY COLUMN.

BIBLE TEACHING IN STATE SCHOOLS. AN UP-TO-DATE REVIEW AND APPEAL. (By the Yen. Archdeacon Willis, Cambridge.) Article IV. THE EXCELLENCE OF THE NEW SOUTH WALES SYSTEM. In the fourth article of this series I named the chief objections that are usually made to having Bible teaching made part of the school system; and showed how all of them have been satisfactorily answered. I kept the best answer, however, till the last, namely, the N.S.W. system of religious teaching. This is a system which has been in full working order in the State of New South Wales for over forty years; and in other States of the Commonwealth for shorter periods. It, moreover, gives practically universal satisfaction in its working. I shall now proceed to set out shrilly some of its excellent features. 1 have adopted for the most part tho wording of one or other of several replies given by the Department of Public Instruction in New South Wales to inqiunes which have been made from Now Zealand. The only exception to this is the opening sentence of the next paragraph, which is a quotation from clause 7 of the New South Wales Education Act. General Instruction (N.S.W.) —“In ail schools the teaching shall be strictly non-sectarian, but the words ‘secular instruction’ shall be hold to include general religions teaching as distinguished from dogmatic or polemical .theology.” “This religious teaching is placed on exactly the same footing as geography, grammer, or any other subject. At tho annual inspection of schools the failure of any class to reach the standard in Scripture would tell against the teacher just as satisfactory work would tell in his favour.” “The Irish National Board’s Scripture lesson books are regularly read.”

Teachers and Parents (N.S.W.) — “All teachers irrespective of creed are required to teach these Scripture lessons; and in no case has any refusal to do so taken place, nor has complaint ever been made to tho Department that the lessons have been ridculcd or made light of. The regulations allow a parent to withdraw his children from all religious instruction by notifying his wish in writing to the. teacher. As a matter of fact such notifications are so few that for statistical purposes they may be said not to exist.”

Special Instruction (N.S.W.) —“Outside this general religious instruction the Act provides for what is called ‘Special Religions Instruction.’ Any recognised clergyman or other teacher authorised by his church has the right to give to the children of, his own denomination one hour’s religious instruction daily. Unlike the General Instruction this may consist of worship and purely sectarian teaching. It is given during the ordinary school hours.” “In all cases thfe pupils receiving such religious instruction are separated from the other pupils of the school.” “The opportunity thus afforded is largely availed of by the principal denominations.”

The Latest Statistics (N.S.W. — “The number of visits paid during 1910 by authorised teachers of the various denominations for the purpose of giving special religious touching is given below :

Totals 46,705 218,537.” It will thus ho seen that the opportunities given are made most use of by those termed “other denominations,” tho Presbyterians come next, and then in order tiic Methodists, the Church of England, and the Roman Catholics. General Results (N.S.W.) —“In case of the non-attendance of any clergyman or religious teacher during any portion of the period agreed to bo set apart for religious instruction, such period shall be devoted to the ordinary secular instruction iu such school.” “There are no sectarian difficulties in working the clauses providing for general or special religious instruction, because the system has always formed part of the school routine; and probably only a very small per centage of parents would like a change made, unless it were in the direction of giving more and not less religious teaching. The general outcome of the instruction is, that all pupils receive a substantial knowledge of Scripture history, and are made acquainted with the moral teaching contained in the Bible.” The following report regarding the New South Wales sys*rm is from a Queensland newspaper :-—“lnspector’s Report (N.S.W.): Mr. A. Ldbbcn. Senior Inspector of Schools, N.S.W., who has been an officer of the Department for 15 years, and who is an elder of the Presbyterian Church, wrote recently: ‘1 know nothing that has done so much to remove sectarian c-ittciness and religious misunderstanding between members of the vai iov.c churches as the possession ol this inestimable privilege in the ; üblic schools of this State. The teachers are selected without reference to their religious denomination, ; ml never interfere with each other’s religious belief. Children of various denominations arc ranged side by side in the classes, and road the .Scripture lessons together, but no reference to cburch.es is allowed. When they

r.oparato to go for religious instruc tion to (heir pastors, no more notice is token of the fact hy the pupils than if the class had been broken into sections for special instruction in sec-

ular woik.’ ” 'i'he same newspaper gives reports from Western Australia regarding a like system to that ol New South Wales. The InspectorGeneral of Schools (W.A.) states: — “No sectarian difiicnlty has been found by the Department in the working of the system. Ihe State school teachei s find no difficulty worth mentioning either in giving the non-sec-tarian religions teaching, or in relation to the visits of ministers of religion for special instruction classes during school hours. Less than live per cent of the children have been withdrawn from the non-sectarian religious instruction.” The President.of the Teachers’ Lnion (W.A.) writes: “I was an opponent to the introduction of the system, as I thought it would tend to brand distinctions that would not be pleasant, hut so far as 1 can see after seven years’ experience my fears had no foundation in fact. Your Queensland teachers’ have nothing to fear in the introduction of religious instruction, hut will have an added lever to raise the young lives to the high ideals they so much desire.”

The testimony of Tasmania.—The Director of Education states: —“The system is acceped by all denominations as a happy solution of the religious diflieulty.” In my next article 1 shall advocate that all Christian bodies in the Dominion unite together to demand the same thing, and to require that the question of the adoption or otherwise of the N.S.W. system he submitted to a special vote of the people of the Dominion.

No.of Children Denomination Visits Enrolled Church of England... 25,200 110,090 Roman Catholic 8-10 31,755 Presbyterian 7,132 25,478 Methodist 8,430 30,034 Other Denominations 5,094 15,180