The Elementary Education Act 1870, commonly known as Forster's Education Act, set the framework for schooling of all children between the ages of 5 and 12 in England and Wales. It established local education authorities with defined powers, authorized public money to improve existing schools, and tried to frame conditions attached to this aid so as to earn the goodwill of managers. It has long been seen as a milestone in educational development, but recent commentators have stressed that it brought neither free nor compulsory education, and its importance has thus tended to be diminished rather than increased.Nigel Middleton, "The Education Act of 1870 as the Start of the Modern Concept of the Child." British Journal of Educational Studies 18.2 (1970): 166-179. The law was drafted by William Forster, a Liberal MP, and it was introduced on 17 February 1870 after campaigning by the

National Education League The National Education League was a political movement in England and Wales which promoted elementary education for all children, free from religious control. The National Education League, founded 1869, developed from the Birmingham Education Lea ...

, although not entirely to their requirements. In Birmingham,

Joseph Chamberlain Joseph Chamberlain (8 July 1836 – 2 July 1914) was a British statesman who was first a radical Liberal, then a Liberal Unionist after opposing home rule for Ireland, and eventually served as a leading imperialist in coalition with the C ...

, not yet a Member of Parliament, was a prominent campaigner on the issue. However, like many grassroots Liberals, he opposed the bill because it was open to the possibility of subsidising

Church of England The Church of England (C of E) is the established Christian church in England and the mother church of the international Anglican Communion. It traces its history to the Christian church recorded as existing in the Roman province of Brit ...

schools with local

ratepayers Rates are a type of property tax system in the United Kingdom, and in places with systems deriving from the British one, the proceeds of which are used to fund local government. Some other countries have taxes with a more or less comparable role ...

' money.Peter T. Marsh, ''Joseph Chamberlain'' (1994) pp 34-55 It was one of the

Elementary Education Acts 1870 to 1893 Education Act (with its variations) is a stock short title used for legislation in Australia, Hong Kong, India, Malaysia, New Zealand, the United Kingdom and the United States that relates to education. The Bill for an Act with this short title wi ...

Need

The Act was passed partly in response to political factors, such as the need to educate the citizens who were recently enfranchised by the Reform Act 1867 to vote "wisely". It also came about due to demands for reform from industrialists, who feared that Britain's competitive status in world trade, manufacture and improvement was being threatened by the lack of an effective education system. There were objections to the concept of

universal education Universal access to education is the ability of all people to have equal opportunity in education, regardless of their social class, race, gender, sexuality, ethnic background or physical and mental disabilities. The term is used both in ...

. One was that many people remained hostile to the idea of

mass education Compulsory education refers to a period of education that is required of all people and is imposed by the government. This education may take place at a registered school or at other places. Compulsory school attendance or compulsory schooling ...

. They claimed it would make labouring classes 'think' and that thus attain

class consciousness In Marxism, class consciousness is the set of beliefs that a person holds regarding their social class or economic rank in society, the structure of their class, and their class interests. According to Karl Marx, it is an awareness that is key to ...

, possibly encouraging them to revolt. Others feared that handing children to a central authority could lead to indoctrination. Some poor people feared that mass education would equip people to defraud or mislead those without an education. Another reason was the vested interests of the Church and other social groups. The churches were funded by the state with public money to provide education for the poor and did not want to lose that influence on youth. It had been deduced from the United Kingdom Census 1861 that out of 4.3 million children of primary school age in England & Wales, 1 million were in purely voluntary (church) schools and 1.3 million were in state aided voluntary schools but 2 million had no schooling.Jenkins 2002, pp231-5

Lord Ripon George Frederick Samuel Robinson, 1st Marquess of Ripon, (24 October 1827 – 9 July 1909), styled Viscount Goderich from 1833 to 1859 and known as the Earl of Ripon in 1859 and as the Earl de Grey and Ripon from 1859 to 1871, was a British p ...

(

Lord President of the Council The lord president of the Council is the presiding officer of the Privy Council of the United Kingdom and the fourth of the Great Officers of State, ranking below the Lord High Treasurer but above the Lord Keeper of the Privy Seal. The Lord ...

) and William Forster (Vice-President of the Council) were responsible for education in the

Gladstone William Ewart Gladstone ( ; 29 December 1809 – 19 May 1898) was a British statesman and Liberal politician. In a career lasting over 60 years, he served for 12 years as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, spread over four non-cons ...

government of 1868–1874 and were keen to introduce a bill, as was Henry Bruce (

Home Secretary The secretary of state for the Home Department, otherwise known as the home secretary, is a senior minister of the Crown in the Government of the United Kingdom. The home secretary leads the Home Office, and is responsible for all nationa ...

). Although Gladstone was sympathetic to the argument that better education had helped the Prussians to their unexpected victory in the

Austro-Prussian War The Austro-Prussian War, also by many variant names such as Seven Weeks' War, German Civil War, Brothers War or Fraternal War, known in Germany as ("German War"), (; "German war of brothers") and by a variety of other names, was fought in 186 ...

(as he remarked, "Undoubtedly, the conduct of the campaign, on the German side, has given a marked triumph to the cause of systematic popular education"), he was a devout Anglican and did not want to see the existing Church of England schools absorbed into any kind of National Education system. Education was not a legislative priority after Irish Disestablishment and the First Irish Land Act. A bill was eventually introduced in the 1870 session although Gladstone was at least as concerned about the abolition of University Tests at the same time.

Principles

Local authorities were required to make returns of the number of children in their area and existing educational provision. That was done by comparing the results of a census of existing school places with the number of children of school age recorded in the

census A census is the procedure of systematically acquiring, recording and calculating information about the members of a given population. This term is used mostly in connection with national population and housing censuses; other common censuses inc ...

. If there was a shortfall, a

school board A board of education, school committee or school board is the board of directors or board of trustees of a school, local school district or an equivalent institution. The elected council determines the educational policy in a small regional are ...

for the district would be created. The boards were to provide elementary education for children aged 5–12 (inclusive). Board members were elected by the ratepayers under a system of

cumulative voting Cumulative voting (also accumulation voting, weighted voting or multi-voting) is a multiple-winner method intended to promote more proportional representation than winner-take-all elections such as block voting or first past the post. Cumulativ ...

. The number of members was determined by the size of the population of the district. Each voter could choose three or more members from a list of candidates, and those with the highest number of votes were chosen for the existing number of seats available. A voter could cast all their votes for one person. Known as 'plumping', that ensured that religious and later political minorities could ensure some representation on the board. The franchise was different from national elections since female householders could vote and stand for office. The boards financed themselves by a precept (a requisition) added to either the local poor rate or the municipal rate. They were also eligible to apply for capital funding in the form of a government loan. The boards could make grants to existing church schools, as had occurred since the 1830s, and erect their own board schools or elementary schools. Section 74 of the Act empowered boards to create a

by-law A by-law (bye-law, by(e)law, by(e) law), or as it is most commonly known in the United States bylaws, is a set of rules or law established by an organization or community so as to regulate itself, as allowed or provided for by some higher authori ...

and to table it before

Parliament In modern politics, and history, a parliament is a legislative body of government. Generally, a modern parliament has three functions: representing the electorate, making laws, and overseeing the government via hearings and inquiries. Th ...

to make attendance compulsory unless there was an excuse, such as sickness, living more than three miles from a school or having been certified as reaching a certain standard of education. In 1873, 40% of the population lived in compulsory attendance districts. All schools would be inspected by making use of the existing regime. The individual schools continued to be eligible for an annual government grant calculated on the basis of the inspection ('payment by results').

Contentious provisions

Two provisions of the Act became, for religious reasons, matters of contention within the governing Liberal Party. Firstly, nonconformists objected to their children being taught Anglican doctrine. As a compromise, William Cowper-Temple (pronounced "Cooper-Temple"), a Liberal MP, proposed for religious teaching in the new state schools to be non-denominational and so restricted in practice to learning the Bible and a few hymns. The Cabinet accepted that amendment on 14 June 1870, and Gladstone proposed it to the House of Commons two days later. It became the famous Cowper-Temple clause (Section 14 of the Act). HCG Matthew, the editor of Gladstone's diaries, believes that compromise to have hurt Gladstone more deeply than any other that he had to make. However, on 30 June 1870, a stronger amendment by

Jacob Bright The Rt Hon. Jacob Bright (26 May 1821 – 7 November 1899) was a British Liberal politician serving as Mayor of Rochdale and later Member of Parliament for Manchester. Background Bright was born at Green Bank near Rochdale, Lancashire. He wa ...

, a younger brother of

John Bright John Bright (16 November 1811 – 27 March 1889) was a British Radical and Liberal statesman, one of the greatest orators of his generation and a promoter of free trade policies. A Quaker, Bright is most famous for battling the Corn La ...

, insisting that religious teaching not be for or against any denomination, was defeated by 251 votes to 130. The supporters of the amendment were all Liberals, and the government won only with Conservative support. Section 7 also gave parents the right to withdraw their children from any religious instruction provided in board schools and to withdraw their children at any time to attend any other religious instruction of their choice. Secondly, parents still had to pay fees for their children to attend school. Section 25 gave school boards the power to pay the fees of poor children, including those attending voluntary (church) schools. Although few school boards actually did so, the provision caused great anger among nonconformists, who saw it as a new source of local ratepayers' money being spent on Church of England schools. A large conference was held at Manchester in 1872 to lead resistance to the section, and one of the campaigners was the Birmingham politician

, who emerged as a national figure for the first time. The resulting splits (some education campaigners, including Chamberlain, stood for Parliament as independent candidates) helped to cost the Liberals the 1874 election.

Effects

Between 1870 and 1880, 3,000 to 4,000 schools were started or taken over by school boards. Rural boards, run by parishes, had only one or two schools to manage, but industrial town and city boards had many. Rural boards favoured economy and the release of children for agricultural labour. Town boards tended to be more rigorous in their provisions, and by 1890, some had special facilities for gymnastics, art and crafts and domestic science. There were ongoing political clashes between the vested interests of Church, private schools and the National Education League followers. In some districts, the creation of boards was delayed by local vote. In others, church leaders managed to be voted onto boards and restrict the building of board schools or divert the school rate funds into church schools. Many factory owners feared the removal of children as a source of cheap labour. However, with the simple mathematics and English that they were acquiring, factory owners now had workers who could read and make measurements. In Wales, the Act is widely believed to be one of the most damaging pieces of legislation in the social history of the Welsh language, as children in Wales who very often knew no English were taught in English only. The Act established the foundations of English elementary education although it was not taken up in all areas and would be more firmly enforced through later reforms. The state's Gladstonian liberalism became increasingly involved. Lord Sandon's

Elementary Education Act 1876 Elementary may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Music * ''Elementary'' (Cindy Morgan album), 2001 * ''Elementary'' (The End album), 2007 * ''Elementary'', a Melvin "Wah-Wah Watson" Ragin album, 1977 Other uses in arts, entertainment, an ...

gave parents a legal obligation to ensure that their children were educated. Following continued campaigning by the National Education League, the Elementary Education Act 1880 ("the Mundella Act") required attendance to the age of 10 everywhere in England and Wales, with various exemptions. In 1891, elementary schooling became free in both board and voluntary (church) schools.

Commercial consequences

As a direct response to this Education Act, the founding father of British popular journalism,

George Newnes Sir George Newnes, 1st Baronet (13 March 1851 – 9 June 1910) was a British publisher and editor and a founding figure in popular journalism. Newnes also served as a Liberal Party Member of Parliament for two decades. His company, George Newne ...

, began his career in publishing in 1881 when he founded '' Tit-Bits''. This was a weekly magazine which took the form of a mini-encyclopedia of information to appeal to the new generations of young readers. '' Tit-Bits'' reached a circulation of 700,000 by the end of the 19th century and paved the way for popular journalism. Most significantly, the ''

Daily Mail The ''Daily Mail'' is a British daily middle-market tabloid newspaper and news websitePeter Wilb"Paul Dacre of the Daily Mail: The man who hates liberal Britain", ''New Statesman'', 19 December 2013 (online version: 2 January 2014) publish ...

'' was founded by Alfred Harmsworth, a contributor to '' Tit-Bits'', and the ''

Daily Express The ''Daily Express'' is a national daily United Kingdom middle-market newspaper printed in tabloid format. Published in London, it is the flagship of Express Newspapers, owned by publisher Reach plc. It was first published as a broadsheet ...

'' was launched by Arthur Pearson, who worked at '' Tit-Bits'' for five years after winning a competition to get a job on the magazine.

End of school boards

The school boards were abolished by the ''Balfour''

Education Act 1902 The Education Act 1902 ( 2 Edw. 7 c. 42), also known as the Balfour Act, was a highly controversial Act of Parliament that set the pattern of elementary education in England and Wales for four decades. It was brought to Parliament by a Conserva ...

, which replaced them with around 300

local education authorities Local education authorities (LEAs) were local councils in England that are responsible for education within their jurisdiction. The term was used to identify which council (district or county) is locally responsible for education in a system wi ...

(LEAs), by which time there were 5,700 board schools (2.6 million pupils) and 14,000 voluntary schools (3 million pupils). The LEAs remit included secondary education for the first time.

Standards of education

In areas served by school boards that had implemented by-laws requiring attendance, compulsory attendance until 13 was exempted if a child over 10 had been certified by the inspector as satisfying the required standard for that board. The standards required varied between 4th Standard (such as in Birmingham) and 6th Standard (such as in Bolton) .

Scotland

Although universal primary education had been established in Scotland by the Education Act of 1633, a similar act to the English Elementary Education Act was passed in 1872 for Scotland, the

Education (Scotland) Act 1872 The Education (Scotland) Act 1872 (35 & 36 Vict. c. 62) made elementary education for all children between the ages of 5 and 13 mandatory in Scotland. The Act achieved a more thorough transfer of existing schools to a public system than the 1 ...

. It required compulsory attendance from the start. It allowed post-elementary schools, but not public funding of them. There were around 1,000 boards in Scotland at the time they were eventually abolished. The 1872 Education Act brought in compulsory education for all children between 5 and 13, although fees still had to be paid until 1890. Teacher shortages continued and problems arose in areas where teachers who spoke no

Gaelic Gaelic is an adjective that means "pertaining to the Gaels". As a noun it refers to the group of languages spoken by the Gaels, or to any one of the languages individually. Gaelic languages are spoken in Ireland, Scotland, the Isle of Man, an ...

attempted to teach children who had no English. Pupil-teachers could later qualify after attending Teacher Training College. Local school boards made sure sufficient schools were built and that children attended them. After 1918, this became a county responsibility. State control increased the number of school inspectors after 1872. Medical and dental inspections were introduced after 1908, though reaching remote schools proved difficult. The leaving age was raised to 14 in 1883. The new system was co-ordinated nationally by the Scotch Education Department with the curriculum emphasising the teaching of reading, writing, and arithmetic (the three ‘Rs’). The churches made a crucial contribution to the new system by handing over their schools without charge to the School Boards. At this time, the Free Church supported 548 schools across Scotland together with 584 teachers.

In popular culture

The early 2000s rock band

The Cooper Temple Clause The Cooper Temple Clause was an English alternative rock band, formed in Wokingham, Berkshire in 1998. The band released three albums before announcing their split on 24 April 2007, following the departure of Daniel Fisher. After signing a rec ...

was named after the provision familiar to generations of history students.

Need

Principles

Contentious provisions

Effects

Commercial consequences

End of school boards

Standards of education

Scotland

In popular culture

References

Further reading

Primary sources

Law books