FURTHER meetings are now certain to take place between the Secretary of State for Education and Science, Mr. A. Crosland, and the Catholic, Anglican, and Free Church authorities over the proposed re-organisation of secondary education in Britain.
As a result of a previous meeting with the representatives of the Churches, Mr. Crosland has revised his circular on "comprehensive" education. It will be published in final form later this mouth.
Archbishop Beck of Liverpool, Britain's leading Catholic spokesman o n educational
mailers, and Mr. Richard Cunningham, head of the Catholic Education Council, represented the Catholic Church et the private meeting.
The financial side of the Catholic problem was heavily stressed by Archbishop Beck. "Mr. Crosland has accepted the points that we have made although we do not yet know the practical outcome of the negotiations", the Archbishop told the CATHOLIC HERALD this week.
"It is very likely that future meetings will take place between us. So far we have spoken frankly and our meet ings have been very cordial", he added.
"We have placed particular emphasis on the financial aspects involved for Catholics. But it is difficult to know yet what results will come from the discussions. We have not reached that stage yet."
In all, there are nearly 10,000 Church schools in the country. Many of these are "aided" and for them the cost of going comprehensive would he considerable.
Since 1960 the Catholic authorities have had a £40 million building programme. About £26,000,000 of this has been spent on secondary schools designed to fit into the existing system.
• Abbot Butler of Downside commented on the reorganisation of the education system earlier this week after presenting prizes at Downside Abbey.
He emphasised that the State had the duty to safeguard the life of the family. But he added that if the parent's right to choose their children's education w a s over-ruled by authority it would be "a decisive step towards totalitarianism".