SO, Cardinal Winning believes that removing education from local-authority control would be beneficial. To whom, I wonder? As it is, under current arrangements, the Archdiocese of Glasgow is doing not so badly at the moment.

At the beginning of November Glasgow's Education Committee will consider a consultative document drawn up at the behest of the archdiocese. For a document which has no educational basis and whose arguments, throughout, are flawed, this is no mean feat. The document, a revision of placing request procedures for Glasgow schools, was drawn up with no reference to other bodies apart from the archdiocese.

No effort was made to assess the revision's impact on local communities. Only school boards, where they exist, were given the unenviable task of standing in judgment on the proposed changes.

These changes will remove the right, under certain circumstances, of people within a local community to send their children to the local school if the undefined criteria of ''religious ethos'' is not met. It will have a major impact on non-denominational parents wishing to send their children to their local denominational secondary school.

If the document is approved, such parents will find that what they have always regarded as a right will no longer exist. They will have to submit a placing request in order to attend their local state secondary school.

It is possible that they may be excluded from the school on their doorstep in preference to placing requests from outwith the local community and, indeed, from outwith the city boundary.

The consultative document attempts to offer a legal basis for its proposals. It rests upon legal opinion given at the Court of Session with regard to the case of Regan v Dundee City Council. Prior to issuing the document, a request was made by my local councillor that the education committee should seek legal advice from counsel.

Councillor Gerald Carroll who, as junior counsel, had intimate knowledge of the background to the case, expressed surprise that it was being used as a justification for the revision. His request was ignored and advice was never sought.

As if in desperation for any legal hook on which to hang the argument, the document then invokes the statutory provision that all teachers in denominational schools must be ''approved'' in the religious sense and, by implication, so should the pupils. This is a factually incorrect assertion. If it were otherwise I, and many other teachers throughout Scotland, would have been out of a job years ago.

In a piece of breathtaking sophistry the document generates the myth that all denominational schools have the same ''traditions and ethos'', without attempting to define either, which are somehow different from non-denominational schools. The authors of the document seem to have forgotten that it is not all that long ago that the re-zoning plans for denominational education in the south of Glasgow were rejected en masse by parents. They were certainly not convinced that the alternatives on offer matched their expectations of ''traditions and ethos''.

While Cardinal Winning has no reason to complain over the city council's response to this particular request for a revision of placing request procedures, others certainly have cause for real concern. Throughout the city parents have, over the years, opted to send their children to their local secondary school, with denomination or religion playing no part in their choice. This assumed right could be about to be removed with few being aware of the possibility.

To my knowledge there are two denominational secondary schools in Glasgow which stand to be most affected - St Andrew's to the east of the city and Holyrood in the south. In both areas, the local community has led the way as regards the choice of school for its children. For them, the archdiocese's request could turn the clock back, with concerned and informed members of the community having little say in the matter, regardless of whether school boards exist or not.

In the case of Holyrood, its school board, which was one of many active a number of years ago in mobilising parents to resist re-zoning proposals, has failed even to inform parents of the possible changes, never mind organise a public meeting to discuss the implications. Yet with anything up to 20% of its current pupil roll from non-denominational and ethnic-minority backgrounds it can be argued that the board has failed its parents.

To date neither party responsible for this revision comes out unscathed.

The Archdiocese of Glasgow presents specious arguments which, if accepted by Glasgow City Council, could have regressive consequences for education, community, and race relations. The philosophy behind the revision ignores the fact that education has advanced, that education is about the whole person, about preparation for life - not separation.

For its part, the city council has acquiesced in the archdiocese's request, ignoring completely advice from one informed member of the education committee. It further sullied this action by, initially, issuing the consultative document when schools, school boards, and elected councillors were on holiday. Perhaps consultation and debate were the last things it wanted.

Piggy in the middle are the school boards. They should never have been involved in this consultative process. My membership of my local primary school board has always been predicated upon my concern for the education and welfare of all the school's pupils. It is not my role nor that of any school board to comment upon the ''traditions and ethos'' of any other school, or the applicability of its pupils to this vague criterion.

At the end of the day I look forward to the deliberations of a Scottish parliament on education in Scotland. It will be interesting to see what type of nation will be cobbled together. Will it be a parliament which represents the interests of one people or which continues as before, typified by this attempt to condition education provision on the confessional grounds of one section of the population?

Hugh Humphries,

31 Tinto Road, Glasgow.

October 14.