116 THEISLAND ACADIANS 
     
    
   
   
    
     remain non-confessional. However, this principle had not yet been 
     
     laid down by law. Instead, it was left to the Board of Education to 
     
     make sure that the curriculum and schoolbooks authorized for these 
     
     schools were devoid of any religious content. When schools did not 
     
     adhere strictly to the orders of the Board, the authorities turned a 
     
     blind eye to the irregularities as long as no conflicts arose in the 
     
     districts concerned. 
     
    

    
     As we saw earlier, Acadian schools, although receiving grants from 
     
     the provincial Treasury, enjoyed a special status. Priests were authorized 
     
     to certify the proficiency of their teachers who were, by necessity, 
     
     Catholic. Furthermore, the clergy made a point of choosing school- 
     
     books with a religious content. 
     
    

    
     But the religious debate that flared up after 1856, following the 
     
     official opening of the Normal School in Charlottetown, led Protestant 
     
     journalists and later, Orangemen, to criticize openly the privileges 
     
     enjoyed by the Acadian schools. They demanded that the government 
     
     stop giving these confessional schools preferential treatment®’. They 
     
     also asked why the government was subsidizing French-language edu- 
     
     cation for Acadians. The newspaper, The Islander wrote: 
     
    
   
   
    
     We reply that the French inhabitants of the Island have no right to expect to 
     
     be educated in the French language—they have no claims upon the Govern- 
     
     ment—they are the descendants of prisoners of war who secreted themselves 
     
     in the woods of the Island, and of the neighbouring Provinces. [...] We, on 
     
     grounds of national policy, object to the encouragement of French schools. . .** 
     
    
   
   
    
     Because of these criticisms, changes were made to the School 
     
     Act that were to have profound repercussions on Acadian schools. In 
     
     1860 an amendment forced Acadian teachers to take the Board of 
     
     Education examinations in order to obtain a teacher’s certificate. If 
     
     they refused to comply, their salary was reduced from 40 to 35 
     
     pounds’*’. Three years later, another amendment abolished the cate- 
     
     gory of Acadian schoolteachers. This meant that Acadian teachers had 
     
     the same status as other teachers on the Island and that the privileges, 
     
     which until then had been granted to Acadian schools, were elimi- 
     
     nated. Thus, in principle, Acadian schools ceased to exist. A teacher 
     
     in an Acadian school could in fact be of any denomination, he no 
     
     longer had to show that he was capable of teaching in French, and 
     
     he had to attend the Normal School where all teacher training took