The Edinburgh Secular Society and the Humanist Society Scotland are calling for a review of the law which compels councils to appoint three religious representatives to their local education committees, reports STV News

Professor Emeritus Norman Bonney from the Edinburgh Secular Society described the current system as a “seventeenth century theocratic interference in our education system”.

He said: “This is scandalous. This is a fundamental challenge to the democratic principles on which local authorities are constituted. The Church of Scotland has been caught out by its own words, as it and other Christian churches exercise control over the work of our democratically elected local authorities.

“Surely our elected local authority councillors and members of the Scottish Parliament cannot continue to tolerate this 17th century theocratic interference in our education system.”