England
Influenced by doctrines of laissez-faire, England hesitated a long time before allowing the state to intervene in educational affairs. At the beginning of the 19th century, education was regarded as entirely the concern of voluntary or private enterprise, and there was much unsystematic philanthropy. Attempts were made to channel and concentrate it, and many hoped that the Church of England and the dissenting churches would join in a concerted effort to provide a national system of elementary education on a voluntary basis. But discordant views prevented such cooperation, and two voluntary societies were founded, one representative of the Church of England and the other of dissent. In 1829 the Roman Catholics were emancipated by law from disabilities they had long suffered, and so they also were able to provide voluntary schools. Other religious bodies joined in the effort to meet the growing need for elementary schools, but it was soon evident that voluntary finance would not be equal to this formidable task. In 1833 the government made a small building grant to these societies, and in this modest way state intervention began. Six years later a committee of the Privy Council was established to administer the state grants, now made annually, and to arrange for the inspection of voluntary schools aided from public funds. The work involved led to the establishment of a small central education department, which was the beginning of the ministry of education.
Matthew Arnold was influential in pressing upon the English conscience the importance of public education for the state. While serving as inspector of elementary schools from 1851 to 1886, he studied European school systems and contrasted the meagre educational contributions of the English state with the more generous ones of Continental states.
Elementary Education Act
England prolonged its reliance on voluntary initiative for year after year as population increased and, with the growing industrialization, people crowded into the new towns. At last in 1870 Parliament, after long, acrimonious debates, passed an Elementary Education Act, the foundation upon which the English educational system has been built. Religious teaching and worship were the crucial issues in the debates, and the essentials of the settlement agreed upon were (1) a dual system of voluntary and local-authority schools and (2) careful safeguards to ensure as far as possible that no child would receive religious teaching that was at variance with the wishes of his parents. It was left to the school boards—as these first local education authorities were called—to decide on an individual basis whether to make elementary education compulsory in their districts. In 1880, however, it was made compulsory throughout England and Wales, and in 1891 fees were abolished in all but a few elementary schools.
Secondary and higher education
Secondary education was still left to voluntary and private enterprise. Attention was focused on the “public” schools (independent secondary schools such as Eton and Harrow, usually for boarders from upper- and well-to-do middle-class homes), which under the leadership of outstanding headmasters such as Thomas Arnold were thoroughly reformed. As headmaster of Rugby School (1828–42), Arnold is credited with changing the face of public education in England by instilling a spirit of moral responsibility and intellectual integrity grounded in Christian ethics. Arnold’s aims of school life—religious and moral principles, gentlemanly conduct, and intellectual ability—were to have an enduring influence on the English public school system.
Several new universities were founded during the 19th century, and the latter half of it saw the founding of a number of girls’ high schools and boarding schools offering an education that was comparable to that available in boys’ public schools and grammar schools. Several training colleges for teachers were established by voluntary agencies, and universities and university colleges toward the end of the century undertook the training of postgraduates as teachers in departments of education created for this purpose.