Act of Parliament | |
Long title | An Act to make further provision with respect to Education in England and Wales and for purposes connected therewith. |
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Citation | 8 & 9 Geo. 5. c. 39 |
Territorial extent | England and Wales |
Dates | |
Royal assent | 8 August 1918 |
Other legislation | |
Amends | |
Repeals/revokes |
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Amended by | |
Relates to | Education (Scotland) Act 1918 |
Status: Amended | |
Text of statute as originally enacted | |
Text of the Education Act 1918 as in force today (including any amendments) within the United Kingdom, from legislation.gov.uk. |
Education (Scotland) Act 1918 | |
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Act of Parliament | |
Long title | An Act to make further provision with respect to Education in Scotland and for purposes connected therewith. |
Citation | 8 & 9 Geo. 5. c. 48 |
Territorial extent | Scotland |
Dates | |
Royal assent | 21 November 1918 |
Other legislation | |
Relates to | Education Act 1918 |
The Education Act 1918 (8 & 9 Geo. 5. c. 39), often known as the Fisher Act, is an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. It was drawn up by H. A. L. Fisher. Herbert Lewis, Parliamentary Secretary to the Board of Education, also played a key role in drawing up the Act. The Act applied only to England and Wales; a separate "Education (Scotland) Act 1918" applied for Scotland.
This raised the school leaving age to fourteen and planned to expand tertiary education. Other features of the 1918 Education Act included the provision of ancillary services (medical inspection, nursery schools, centres for pupils with special needs, etc.).
Industrialists, landowners, and the Church of England resisted the Act, which raised the school leaving age from 12 to 14, made it much harder to employ children under 12, and put in place scholarships to fee-paying grammar schools. [1] The Act promised compulsory part-time education from 14 to 18, but this was never implemented because of the Geddes Axe (spending cuts) of 1921. Teachers’ pay was also cut at that time and again in the May Committee cuts of 1931. [1] [2]
By the 1920s, the education of young children was of growing interest and concern to politicians, as well as to educationalists. As a result of this rising level of public debate, the Government of the day referred a number of topics for enquiry to the Consultative Committee of the Board of Education, [3] then chaired by Sir William Henry Hadow. Altogether the Hadow Committee published three very important reports – 1926, 1931 and 1933.
These reports led to major changes in the structure of primary (known as "elementary" at the time) education. In particular, they resulted in separate and distinctive educational practice for children aged 5–7 (infants) and those aged 7–11 (juniors).
The reports recommended child-centred approaches and class sizes of no more than thirty. These recommendations marked a triumph of 'progressive' educational thought and practice over the more 'traditional' ideas and proved to be popular with many policy makers and teachers alike.
Home education in the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is often termed "elective home education" ("EHE") to signify the independent nature of practice from state provisions such as education for children with ill-health provided by the local authority in the family home. EHE is a collective term used in the UK to describe education provided other than through the schooling system. Parents have a duty to ensure their children are educated but the education legislation in England and Wales does not differentiate between school attendance or education otherwise than at school. Scots education legislation on the other hand differentiates between public (state) school provision and education "by other means", which includes both private schooling and home education. The numbers of families retaining direct responsibility for the education of their children has steadily increased since the late 1970s. This increase has coincided with the formation of support groups such as Education Otherwise. Home education may involve an informal style of education described as unschooling, informal learning, natural or autonomous learning. Others prefer to retain a structured school at home approach sometimes referred to as homeschooling although the terms are often interchanged.
James Chuter Chuter-Ede, Baron Chuter-Ede,, was a British teacher, trade unionist and Labour Party politician. He was a Member of Parliament (MP) for 32 years, and served as the sole Home Secretary under Prime Minister Clement Attlee from 1945 to 1951, becoming the longest-serving Home Secretary of the 20th century.
The Education Act 1944 made major changes in the provision and governance of secondary schools in England and Wales. It is also known as the Butler Act after the President of the Board of Education, R. A. Butler. Historians consider it a "triumph for progressive reform," and it became a core element of the post-war consensus supported by all major parties. The Act was repealed in steps with the last parts repealed in 1996.
Herwald Ramsbotham, 1st Viscount Soulbury was a British Conservative politician. He served as a government minister between 1931 and 1941 and served as Governor-General of Ceylon between the years 1949 and 1954.
The second MacDonald ministry was formed by Ramsay MacDonald on his reappointment as prime minister of the United Kingdom by King George V on 5 June 1929. It was the second time the Labour Party had formed a government; the first MacDonald ministry held office in 1924.
The Plowden Report is the unofficial name for the 1967 report of the Central Advisory Council For Education (England) into Primary education in England. The report, entitled Children and their Primary Schools, reviewed primary education in a wholesale fashion. The collation of the report took around 3 years. The Council was chaired by Bridget, Lady Plowden after whom the report is named.
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.
Sir William Henry Hadow was a leading educational reformer in Great Britain, a musicologist and a composer.
Three-tier education refers to those structures of schooling, which exist in some parts of England, where pupils are taught in three distinct school types as they progress through the education system.
The Education Act 1902, 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 Conservative government and was supported by the Church of England, opposed by many Nonconformists and the Liberal Party. The Act provided funds for denominational religious instruction in voluntary elementary schools, most of which were owned by the Church of England and the Roman Catholics. It reduced the divide between voluntary schools, which were largely administered by the Church of England, and schools provided and run by elected school boards, and reflected the influence of the Efficiency Movement in Britain. It was extended in 1903 to cover London.
The history of education in England is documented from Saxon settlement of England, and the setting up of the first cathedral schools in 597 and 604.
Norman Henry Lacy is an Australian former politician, who was a Minister in the Hamer and Thompson Cabinets of the Victorian Government from May 1979 to April 1982.
School corporal punishment is the deliberate infliction of physical pain as a response to undesired behavior by students. The term corporal punishment derives from the Latin word for the "body", corpus. In schools it may involve striking the student on the buttocks or on the palms of their hands with an implement such as a rattan cane, wooden paddle, slipper, leather strap, belt, or wooden yardstick. Less commonly, it could also include spanking or smacking the student with an open hand, especially at the kindergarten, primary school, or other more junior levels.
Herbert Schofield, PhD, was a leading figure in technical education, a Rotarian and, from 1915 to 1950, a Principal of Loughborough College, which became Loughborough University.
The Spens Report was an important 1938 British government report on secondary schools in the UK which led to much-wider expansion of grammar schools in the UK, and the introduction of technical schools and "modern" schools. From this report, all people would go to a secondary school.
Elementary schools were the first schools in England and Wales intended to give a basic education to the children of working class families. At the start of the 19th century, the only schooling available to these young people was run by private concerns or by charities, and was often of a very poor standard. In the first decades of that century, a network of elementary schools was established by societies backed by the Christian churches. In an effort to expand this "voluntary" system, the government made grants available to these societies, initially for new school buildings but later towards their running costs. It became apparent that although this system worked reasonably well in rural communities, it was far less successful in the rapidly expanding industrial cities, and that Britain was falling behind the rest of the developed world. In 1870, an act of parliament established elected school boards throughout England and Wales, which were empowered to create secular "board schools" funded by local taxation where there was no provision by the church societies. Further legislation made school attendance compulsory, and eventually free of charge. The problem of how the education of older pupils should be managed was solved by abolishing school boards in 1902 and passing responsibility to local councils. Elementary schools were eventually replaced in 1944 by the system of primary and secondary education.
Richard Austen Butler, Baron Butler of Saffron Walden,, generally known as R. A. Butler and familiarly known from his initials as Rab, was a British Conservative Party politician.
Seniha Nafız Hızal was a Turkish school teacher and politician. She was one of the first 18 female members of the Turkish parliament.
Anthony John Mundella, known as Anthony Mundella, was an English journalist, education reformer and campaigner for child welfare. After working as Private Secretary to his namesake uncle, Rt Hon Anthony John Mundella, a Liberal Party Member of Parliament and Cabinet Minister, he became a journalist and parliamentary sketch writer for The Manchester Guardian. He was elected Chairman of the Press Gallery. Subsequently, he was for 35 years Secretary of the National Education Association, and campaigned for a free progressive system of national education, publicly controlled and free from sectarian interest. He was well known in the House of Commons and much sought after by MPs and government ministers for his wide knowledge and expertise in educational reform and child welfare. It is said that he was responsible more than any other for the abolition of the injurious employment of children of school age.
Essie Ruth Conway was an educationist who was the head of a Liverpool school and President of the National Union of Teachers in 1918.