School Establishment Act 1616

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The School Establishment Act 1616 was an Act of the Scottish Privy Council dated 10 December 1616. It mandated the establishment of publicly funded, Church-supervised schools in every parish of Scotland. The act was a consequence of the Scottish Reformation, and was the basis of all future acts of the Parliament of Scotland related to school establishment.

Contents

Summary

The act stated: [1] [2]

The act reflected the current status of the ongoing Episcopalian-Presbyterian power struggle by specifying school supervision by bishops (as per the Episcopalian view; the Presbyterian view was supervision by presbyteries).[ citation needed ]

For the most part, the act was inspired by adherence to the principles of Knox's Book of Discipline. The objective that everyone, especially the youth, be educated is taken from the Preamble to the book, [3] while the means of realising this objective (government establishment of Church-supervised schools) is also from that book. [4]

Those who were sympathetic towards Highland culture praised the objective of promoting universally available education, but noted that government efforts in the Isles and Highlands were anti-Gaelic and not pro-education. [5]

By itself, the act was not effective, as it provided no means of realisation. The act would be ratified by the Parliament's Education Act 1633, which would also provide a method of realising the objective. The privy council act remained in effect into the nineteenth century as one of the principal statutes for the management of schools under Scots Law. [6]

See also

Notes

  1. "Scotch Laws Relating to Education". Of the Education of the Poor. London: W. Bulmer and Co. 1809. pp. 261–62..
  2. "Acts of the Parliament and of the Privy Council of Scotland, relative to the establishing and maintaining of Schools". Miscellany of the Maitland Club (in Scots). Vol. II. Edinburgh: Maitland Club. 1840. p. 24. - in Scots.
  3. Edgar, John (1893). History of Early Scottish Education. Edinburgh: James Thin. pp.  245–46.
  4. Edgar, John (1893). History of Early Scottish Education. Edinburgh: James Thin. p.  251.
  5. William MacKay (1888). "Education in the Highlands in the Olden Times". The Celtic Magazine: A Monthly Periodical. Vol. XIII. Inverness. pp. 360–70 (esp. 363).
  6. Barclay, Hugh (1855). A Digest of the Law of Scotland (Second ed.). Edinburgh: T. & T. Clark. pp.  907.

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