§ LORD R. CECILI bog to ask the President of the Board of Education whether the Education Department has 245 ruled that the Apostles Creed is or is not a religious formulary distinctive of a particular denomination within the moaning of Section 14 of the Education Act, 1870.
I beg further to ask the President of the Board of Education whether, in the opinion of the Education Department, the teaching that can be given under Section 14 (2) of The Education Act, 1870, is confined to the ethical, literary, and historical use of the Bible.
§ MR. BIRRELLThe Board have no jurisdiction to determine these or any other questions under Section 14 of the Act of 1870. My own opinion, however, which is purely personal, is that the reply to both Questions is in the negative. The noble Member may be interested to learn that the question of the legality of the inclusion of the Apostles Creed in a board school syllabus was submitted to the Department some years ago under the jurisdiction then possessed under Section 16 of the Act of 1870, which has since been repealed. The Department then decided that the inclusion of the Apostles Creed was legal.