Education and Training

Pre-1945

1870
Education Act. Introduced a national system of elementary education, but left the issue of enforcing attendance to School Boards. 

1902
Education Act. Abolished School Boards and integrated higher grade elementary schools and fee-paying secondary schools. 

1909
Board of Education consultation paper recommended the introduction of ‘day continuation education’ for school leavers. 

1917
Lewis Report. Proposed introduction of a School Leaving Age of 14 with no exemptions, followed by attendance for not less than 8 hours a week or 320 hours a year at day continuation classes up to the age of 18. 

1918
Education Act. Followed recommendations of Lewis Report. School leaving age to be raised to 14 years. All young workers should be given a right of access to day release education (this part not implemented and repealed by §121 sched. 7 of 1921 Act). 

1920
Unemployment Insurance Act. Gave government powers to impose a training condition on benefits. However, no national funds were allocated to set up and run training courses, which instead tended to develop at a local level. 

1921
Education Act. Minimum School Leaving Age raised from 12 years to 14 years of age. 

1926
Hadow Report on the ‘Education of the Adolescent’. Recommended a further increase in the SLA to 15 years. 

1932
Royal Commission on Unemployment Insurance. Argued that ‘Attendance at a Junior Instruction Centre or at a Course of Instruction should everywhere be regarded and enforced as a normal condition in respect of unemployment, whether through the Insurance Scheme or in the form of Unemployment Assistance’ (p320). 

1930
Some national responsibility for training accepted by Ministry of Labour. 

1938
Spens Report. Recommended minimum School Leaving Age be raised to 16 years. 

1944
Education Act. School leaving age raised to 15 years with effect from 1947. Established a tripartite system of grammar, technical and secondary modern schools.