§ MR. J. F. MASONI beg to ask the President of the Board of Education whether a teacher who has been permitted I to give and has undertaken to give special religious instruction under Clause 4 of the Education Bill may be dismissed if he afterwards refuses to give that instruction?
§ MR. BIRRELLThe various conditions under which a teacher's tenure of office might probably be brought to an end by a local authority which has appointed him would depend, presumably, upon the terms of his agreement or contract. It is therefore, quite impossible to give a general reply applicable to all such incidents in the future. But the correct reply to the point, which I imagine to be the real kernel of the hon. Member's Question, would seem to be that careful regard must be had to the provisions of Section 7 of the Bill in the drawing up and signing of any such agreement or contract whether by the applicant or by the appointing authority, so that there may be no infringement of the clause either in the terms of that document or in its enforcement should any such contingency arise as that suggested by the hon. Member.