The collaboration scheme had failed despite the activity of many schoolmasters in promoting it. Another problem which was to attract further public attention to the Locals was that presented by the examination in religious knowledge at Oxford. The two universities had both included such an examination in their programmes, but, characteristically, each had approached it in a different way. At Oxford the examination rested on a definite basis of Church of England doctrine. It had to be accepted or rejected as a whole at the free choice of the parent or guardian, and it originally carried with it no inducement in the form of marks since the results achieved made no difference to the candidate's position in the list.

At Cambridge the examination was not of an exclusively Anglican character, and it counted for marks alongside other subjects. All candidates had to study the Scriptures, but the study of the Church formularies was left entirely optional. As Temple wrote to Robert Scott, ‘they make their religious examination non-church and then press everybody in it. We make ours church and leave it quite open.’ Very few boys chose not to present themselves, and the scheme was generally successful. The fact that the records say very little about the matter is evidence that the scheme worked, and the people who mention it do so with approval. Since the marks gained counted towards a certificate, there was an obvious incentive to conform. Since almost everyone believed that education should be based on Christian principles, there was a constant demand for biblical studies, provided that controversial points of dogma could be avoided.