Beamish Museum

[ Up one level ]

School boards were set up in England and Wales under the Elementary Education Act 1870 following campaigning by George Dixon, Joseph Chamberlain and the National Education League for elementary education free from Anglican doctrine.

School boards were created in boroughs and parishes under the Act. Education was still not free of fees. Members were directly elected, not appointed by borough councils or parishes. Each board could:

* raise funds from a rate
* build and run schools
* subsidise church schools where appropriate
* pay the fees of the poorest children
* if they deemed it necessary, create a by-law making attendance compulsory between ages 5-13
* were not to impose any religious education, other than simple Bible reading

They were abolished by the Education Act 1902, which replaced them with Local Education Authorities.

The 1870 Education Act declared that:

The ratepayers of each Poor Law Union (in the country districts) or borough could petition the Board of Education to investigate educational provision in their area. This 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. If there was a substantial shortfall, a school board would be created.

These Boards were to provide elementary education for children aged 5-12 (inclusive)

Board Members were elected by the ratepayers. (The number of Board Members was determined by the size of the population of the district.) Each voter could choose three (or more) Board Members from a list of candidates, and those with the highest number of votes were chosen for the existing number of seats available. It should be noted that a voter could cast all their votes for one person. This was known as 'plumping' and ensured that religious (and, later, political) minorities could ensure some representation on the Board. The franchise was different to 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.

Parents still had to pay fees for their children to attend schools.

Boards would pay the fees of children who were poor, even if they attended Church schools.

The Boards could make grants to existing Church Schools and erect their own board schools or elementary schools.

Boards could, if they deemed it necessary, create a by-law and table it before Parliament, to make attendance compulsory (unless there was an excuse, for example, sickness, or living more than one mile from a school, or unless they had been certified as reaching a certain standard of education - see below). In 1873, 40% of the population lived in compulsory attendance districts.

Religious teaching in board schools was restricted to non-denominational instruction, or none at all

Parents had the right to withdraw their children from religious education. This applied even to church schools

All schools would be inspected, 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').

 

 

Between 1870 and 1880, 3000-4000 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 very 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.

Education was not made compulsory immediately (not until 1880) since many factory owners feared the removal of children as a source of cheap labour. However with the simple mathematics and English they were acquiring, factory owners now had workers who could read and make measurements.

Following continued campaigning by the National Education League, in 1880, attendance to age ten became compulsory everywhere in England and Wales. In 1891 elementary schooling became free in both board and voluntary (church) schools.

These photographs of Beamish victorian school room are provided in large size for primary school teachers to use in school copyright free

---