§ MR. MONTGOMERY (Somersetshire, Bridgwater)To ask the President of the Board of Education whether he is aware that at Ditton Street school, Ilminster, it has been the custom for years past that, on certain days of the Church of England, the children whose parents belong to that Church should attend service thereat instead of having their scripture lesson in school; whether this is in accordance with the regulations of the Board of Education; and whether May Day and Empire Day are properly described as days exclusively set apart for religious observance by the Church of England.
(Answered by Mr. McKenna.) Matters of school attendance are primarily the concern of the local education authority, and I am not aware of any complaint having been made to the authority in this case. The by-laws of the local education authority in this instance, as approved by the Board of Education, seem to be in no way irregular. From the information in the Question I am unable to say that there has been a breach of any regulations of the Board of Education in the incidents referred to. In reply to the concluding paragraph, I cannot pretend to be an authoritative exponent of what the views of the Church of England are as to whether May Day and Empire Day are days to be "exclusively set apart for religious observance," but I am not aware that those are the grounds upon which the children of the school in question were absent from the school on the days named, nor, so far as I hare observed, does the ordinary practice bear out that view.