Maurice McRae, age 12, of Dover, Del., for his question:

WHAT IS PAROCHIAL SCHOOL EDUCATION?

Parochial school education is the formal, weekday instruction for children that is sponsored by religious denominations. Parochial schools are supported by the deeply held belief of parents and clergy that religious training should be a key element in the daily education of children.

Classes are usually held in parishes or congregations. Pupils pay tuition and teachers may be members of religious orders or qualified lay educators.

Parochial schools have been established by most religious denominations in nations around the world. There are Catholic schools, Protestant schools and Jewish schools as well as schools sponsored by other faiths.

The Roman Catholic church is the primary sponsor of parochial education in the United States and Canada. The major effort to establish Roman Catholic schools started in the mid 19th century as a response to the Protestant orientation of public schooling.

Even though public schools have been secular since the 1870s, many Roman Catholics continue to support parochial schools because they believe that the family and the church, not the state, should be responsible for the education of children.

There are now about 10,000 Roman Catholic parochial schools in the U.S.

Certain Protestant denominations share with Roman Catholics a belief in the close bond between religious and secular instruction. The Lutheran church, for example, currently sponsors about 2,500 schools, the Seventh Day Adventists about 1,200, the Episcopalians about 1,000 and the Baptists and Calvinists about 500 each.

Jewish parochial schools, like Roman Catholic schools, were first started in the U.S. as a response to the Protestant overtones of the early public schools. When public schools became nonreligious, most Jews abandoned their parochial schools in favor of public schools. About 500 remain.

In the U.S. today, tax supported public schools provide education for children between the ages of 7 and 16, or through the secondary level. By law, however, such schools may not teach religious subjects, and parents who wish religious training for their children must provide it outside the public school system.

The legal right of parochial schools to exist and operate in the U.S. was affirmed by the U.S. Supreme Court in 1925, when it ruled unconstitutional an Oregon law requiring all children to attend public schools.

In several subsequent decisions the Supreme Court has overruled efforts to provide direct federal and state aid to parochial schools, but it has upheld programs that provide auxiliary services, such as bus transportation, textbook loans, school lunches and health services to all children, including those who attend parochial schools.

With the many problems facing public schools, records show that parochial school enrollment has been increasing since the mid 1960s.