§ MR. CLOUGH (Yorkshire, W.R., Skipton)I beg to ask the President of the Board of Education whether, in the compilation of the new official list of public elementary schools in the revised nomenclature of non-provided schools, he has adopted the principle of omitting the epithet Church of England, National, or British, and simply associated the title of the school with the village or township in single-school areas.
§ MR. McKENNAThe epithets National and British have been universally omitted. Church of England has been allowed in cases where the managers have applied for it, but only when that epithet or National formed part of the name of the school before. Owing to the possibility of confusion subsequently 703 arising and to the difficulty of determining which of several thousands can properly be regarded as justifying special treatment, it has not, as I had previously hoped, been found possible to differentiate between single school areas and other areas. Moreover, I think with my right hon. predecessor that there is much to be said in favour of a name which gives clear information to parents as to the character of religious teaching which their children would receive if they attended the school.
§ * MR. CLOUGHArising out of that Answer, may I ask the right hon. Gentle man if he considers that this wholesale conversion of non-provided schools into flagrantly denominational schools is consistent with the reply given by his predecessor on 20th December last on the same subject to the effect that "in the great majority of cases the excision of the word 'national'—
§ * MR. SPEAKERThe hon. Member is violating two Rules, first he is asking as to a matter of opinion, and secondly he is quoting a former Answer.
§ * MR. CLOUGHI beg to ask the President of the Board of Education whether in the cases of Bracewell, Cold Coniston, Easington Dale Head, Garsdale, Grassington, Kildwick, Rathmell, Salterforth. Settle, and Thornton-in-Lonsdale, all single school areas in the Skipton division, the epithet Church of England has been substituted for National; whether these changes have been made at the suggestion of properly convened boards of managers in every instance; whether the views of the local education authority with regard to each of these changes in nomenclature have always been ascertained; and will he state why the principle of omitting the epithet: National and simply associating the titles of the schools with the respective villages or townships in these ten single school areas has not been adopted.
§ MR. McKENNAThe Answer to the first paragraph is in the affirmative. The names proposed have been notified to the Board by the official correspondents, and the Board cannot but assume that they represent the views of the managers. The managers were requested in each case to forward a copy of their suggestion 704 to the local education authority in order that that body might have an opportunity of submitting any observations on the names proposed by the managers. I have already dealt in the Answer which I have just given with the last paragraph of my hon. friend's Question.