Compulsory School Attendance and the Elementary Education Act of 1870: 150 Years On

Abstract

On the occasion of its sesquicentenary, which coincides with an extended period of school closures imposed due to the effects of a global virus pandemic, this paper analyses the Elementary Education Act of 1870, and in particular in relation to its implications for compulsory attendance at school. It did not introduce compulsory schooling but helped to shape the ambiguities and uncertainties surrounding school attendance that have persisted into the twenty-first century, such as the case of the Isle of Wight Council v. Platt in 2017 and highlighted in the school closures of 2020. The paper discusses the historiography of educational legislation, looks closely at the requirements for school attendance in the 1870 Act and related legislation, and then examines the historical and contemporary repercussions of this ambiguity and ambivalence.

Margaret Thatcher’s UK School Reforms - Aims, Impact, and Legacy

“…To understand how the Thatcher era changed schools in the UK, we must review the evolution of the state school system prior to her premiership. The groundwork was set with the Elementary Education Act (1870) which mandated primary school attendance, with state-funding relieving parents of the costs and responsibility of their children's education (Mcculloch, 2020). This separation reflected the attitudes of Victorian education policy makersmost parents had not been formally educated and were considered to lack understanding of the importance of education to the country in the industrial era (Hooper, 2016).…”

“…In doing so, the Act widened access in previously neglected areas and ensured all children had at least the option of primary education (subject to their parents' wishes). The Act laid the groundwork for later Victorian educational policy including compulsory schooling between the ages of 5 and 10 years (Elementary Education Act, 1880), and the abolishment of school M HSE -Social and Education History, 11(3) 233 fees (Elementary Education Act, 1891), at which point the cost of education to be taken up by the state (Mcculloch, 2020).…”

Mass education and the British Empire

“…The 1870 Forster Act paved the way for mass education in England and Wales (Mitch, 2020), and Scotland passed its own Education Act in 1872 (Anderson et al., 2015). There has been some scholarly attention to the passage of these acts in recent years (McCulloch, 2020; Mitch, 2020), but this attention rarely focused on the relationship between the metropole and the British Empire. In part, this reflects the work of influential social historians of Britain who largely reject the idea that empire affected education in the imperial metropole (Cannadine, et al., 2011; B. Porter, 2004; Rose, 2001).…”