§ ADMIRAL FIELD (Sussex, Eastbourne)I asked the Vice President of the Committee 819 of Council, Whether, seeing that by the recent Parliamentary Return of Religious Instruction given in "School Board Schools" formed since April 1885, it appears that no religious instruction whatever is given in the Board Schools in the undermentioned parishes of Bedwas, Monmouthshire; Austerfield, Yorkshire; Kenarth and Llannon, Carmarthenshire; Bettws, Margam, Upper Dylais, Upper Neath, and Whitchurch, Glamorganshire, he will be pleased to draw the attention of the several School Boards in question to this defect in their system of teaching?
§ THE VICE PRESIDENT (Sir LYON PLAYFAIR) (Leeds, S.)The Department has no power by the Education Act to make any representation or to use any influence in regard to religious instruction in schools, and the Inspectors are expressly prohibited by Section 7 of the Act from taking any part in it. In the Return to which the hon. Member refers there are Board schools in which no religious instruction is given, and there have been a few similar cases in all previous Returns. The decision as to religious teaching rests wholly with the school boards. It would be against the whole spirit of the Act if I were to make any representations either to school boards or to voluntary schools on the subject of religious teaching.