Church in school

Steuart Campbell of the Edinburgh Secular Society (ESS) claims I was being mischievous in saying the state had made an agreement with the churches to have a Christian education system (Letters, 12 November).

He claims that something called ‘British law” does not require local education authorities to offer a Christian education. Can I mischievously point out that there is no such thing as “British law” when it comes to Scottish education.

We have our own education system, which was formed after the 1872 Act when the churches gave their schools to the state on the explicit understanding that these would remain non-denominational Christian schools.

The Catholic schools stayed out of that system.

The 30 members of the ESS may be campaigning to change the whole of the Scottish education system, but if they want to succeed they should at least get their facts right and realise that we are dealing with the Scottish education system, not the English.

David Robertson

Solas CPC

St Peters Free Church

Dundee