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The School Leaving Age: a Historical Study, with Particular Reference to Legislation Relating to School Leaving up to 1944

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The School Leaving Age: a Historical Study, with Particular Reference to Legislation Relating to School Leaving up to 1944 Durham E-Theses The school leaving age: a historical study, with particular reference to legislation relating to school leaving up to 1944 Bameld M. R., How to cite: Bameld M. R., (1967) The school leaving age: a historical study, with particular reference to legislation relating to school leaving up to 1944, Durham theses, Durham University. Available at Durham E-Theses Online: http://etheses.dur.ac.uk/9705/ Use policy The full-text may be used and/or reproduced, and given to third parties in any format or medium, without prior permission or charge, for personal research or study, educational, or not-for-prot purposes provided that: • a full bibliographic reference is made to the original source • a link is made to the metadata record in Durham E-Theses • the full-text is not changed in any way The full-text must not be sold in any format or medium without the formal permission of the copyright holders. Please consult the full Durham E-Theses policy for further details. Academic Support Oce, Durham University, University Oce, Old Elvet, Durham DH1 3HP e-mail: [email protected] Tel: +44 0191 334 6107 http://etheses.dur.ac.uk 2 ABSTRACT The first three chapters examine the school leaving age in elementary and secondary schools before the establishment of a national compulsory elementary system of education between 1870 and 1880. When elementary education had become compulsory there was a minimum school leaving age of ten which was related to a minimum standard of education. The remaining chapters are mainly concerned with the legislation which raised the minimum leaving age from ten to fifteen with the provision for it to be raised to sixteen.. There are, however, two chapters which survey the school leaving age in secondary schools at the end of the nineteenth century and developments in these schools up to the Second World War. Although legislation relating to the school leaving age applied almost entirely to elementary education, these two chapters provide an important link in the main them:e; for the final minimum leaving age was closely related to the leaving age which had been considered desirable, though not legally enforced, in secondary education. This study, in which special consideration has been given to the legislation concerned with the raising of the school leaving age, shows how an educational question with social suid economic implications was increasingly linked with political issues. The attitude of parents,, employers, teachers and other pressure groups are examined. Changes in public opinion are noted. The concluding chapter attempts to review the main, facets in the overall process of raising the school leaving age. The School Leaving Age - A Historical Study, with particular reference to Legislation relating to School Leaving up to 19kk by M. R. BAMFIELD Thesis submitted for the degree of M.Ed. October, I967 CONTENTS Page Abstract Chapter 1 The School Leaving Age in the 1 Early Nineteenth Century Chapter .'^2 School Leaving in Elementary Schools l6 prior to I870 Chapter 3 School Leaving in Secondary Schools k2 prior to I870 Chapter 4 Compulsion and the School Leaving 56 Age in Elementary Schools Chapter 5 Direct Compulsion replaces Permissive 71 Compulsion, I870-I88O Chapter 6 The Minimum School Leaving Age becomes 83 Eleven Chapter 7 A Private Member's Bill 97 Chapter 8 Secondary Education at the end of 110 the Nineteenth Century Chapter 9 The Education Act of I918 124 Chapter 10 The First Attempt to raise the School l40 Leaving Age to Fifteen Chapter 11 A School Leaving Age of Fifteen with l64 Exemptions Chapter 12 Developments affecting the School I76 Leaving Age in Secondary Education between I9OO and 1944 Chapter 13 The 1944 Education Act 190 Chapter l4 Conclusion 206 CONTENTS (Contd.) Page Appendix I The Leaving Age in some classical 220 schools in the early nineteenth century Appendix II The Leaving Age in some non-classical 222 schools in the early nineteenth century Appendix III Biographical Notes on Members of 226 Parliament ABSTRACT The first three chapters examine the school leaving age in elementary and secondary schools before the establishment of a national compulsory elementary system of education between I870 and 188O. V/hen elementary education had become compulsory there was a minimum school leaving age of ten which was related to a minimum standard of education. The remaining chapters are mainly concerned with the legislation which raised the minimum leaving age from ten to fifteen with the provision for it to be raised to sixteen. There are, however, two chapters which survey the school leaving age in secondary schools at the end of the nineteenth century and developments in these schools up to the Second World War. Although legislation relating to the school leaving age applied almost entirely to elementary education^these two chapters provide an important link in the main theme; for the final minimum leaving age was closely related to the leaving age which had been considered desirable, though not legally enforced, in secondary education. This study, in which special consideration has been given to the legislation concerned with the raising of the school leaving age, shows how an educational question with social and economic implications was increasingly linked with political issues. The attitudes of parents, employers, teachers and other pressure groups are examined. Changes in public opinion are noted. The concluding chapter attempts to review the main facets in the overall process of raising the school leaving age. -1- CHAPTER 1, THE SCHOOL LEAVING AGE IN THE EARLY NINETEENTH CENTURY Economic changes had gained momentum during the second half of the eighteenth century, and by the early years of the nineteenth century society was undergoing a transformation as a result of these developments. Changes were beginning to take place in the field of education. The last two decades of the eighteenth century had seen the rapid growth of Sunday schools, and in the first two decades of the nineteenth century the monitorial system spread. These two movements had considerable influence on educational provision before the beginning of state aid in I833 and inspection in 1839. The picture of school leaving in those years is hazy and nebulous. Education was not compulsory, there was no need to keep records, arid few schools had clear regulations about the age of leaving. The attempts to establish state-supported schools in the early nineteenth century did not, until 1833, concern themselves with age limits. However, in the debate on \tfhitbread's Parochial Schools Bill in l807 John Simeon objected to any system of compulsion and said that in rural areas the poor parents -2- could send their children into the fields "from the ages of seven to fourteen".^ By implication, therefore, he thought that compulsory education would have kept them in a school room until fourteen. In I833 J.A. Roebuck's proposal for "the universal and national education of the whole people" was that every child in Great Britain and Ireland should have to attend school between the ages of six and twelve» Five years later in its report to Parliament the Select Committee on the Education of the Poor<^r Classes said, "Your Committee think it desirable to afford children of the working classes (more especially those in large towns) means 2 of instruction until the age of thirteen." With this as the background it is useful to gain some impression of- the age at which young people and children were leaving school. Many schools had been established or re• established since the early sixteenth century. Many of the earlier foundations, which dated from the ^ Hansard: Parliamentary Debates, l807, Vol. IX, p. 8580 2 R.Ao Slaney: Suggestions as to the improvement of the State of the Lower Classes in Large Towns, 1847, Po l8. -3- sixteenth century and the first half of the seventeenth centuryihad provided, and continued to provide, a grammar school education. These schools were giving instruction in the classical languages. The leaving age of pupils (always boys) in these schools ranged from fourteen to nineteen. It seems fairly clear that the number who stayed beyond fifteen was few. At Christ's Hospital, London, in I816 it was reported to the Select Committee enquiring into the Education of the Lower Orders of the Metropolis that scholars left at fifteen except those who were intended for college entrance or service at sea.^ Only ten or twelve, presumably in any one year, completed all the stages of a classical education; there was no indication of the number whd left to serve on a ship. Yet a hundred and thirty boys were admitted into the school each year. At Evesham Free Grammar School in the rules of the Corpori^tion (which was the governing body) no boy was 2 to remain at school after the age of sixteen. At St. Olave's School in Southwark, a Free Grammar School, ^ Enquiry into the Education of the Lower Orders of the Metropolis, First Report, l8l6!» p. I08. ^ G. Griffith: The Free Schools of Worcestershire, 1852, p. 202. These rules had been made at a date (not specified) before 183O. -4- SixHy out of a total of two hundred and seventy boys were in the grammar or Latin school. The headmaster of the school, the .Rev. James Blenkarne, told the Committee of Enquiry in I816 that these sixty remained after the age of fourteen until their parents decided to remove them,^ These three examples illustrate the diverse patterns of leaving in these schools which 2 provided a classical education. Many schools founded in the late seventeenth century and up to the middle of the eighteenth century were designed to provide elementary education.
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