Education Act 1902

The Education Act 1902 (2 Edw. VII), also known as the Balfour Act, is an Act of Parliament affecting education in England and Wales. (Education in Scotland had always been separate and had been brought under the Scotch Education Department in an act of 1872.) It was passed by the Conservative Party. The Act provided funds for denominational religious instruction in voluntary elementary schools, owned primarily by the Church of England and Roman Catholics. It ended the divide between voluntary schools, which were largely administered by the Church of England, and schools provided and run by elected school boards, and reflected the influence of the Efficiency Movement in Britain. It was extended in 1903 to cover London.

G.R. Searle, like nearly all historians, argues the Act was a short-term political disaster for the Conservative Party. However Searle argues it was long-term success. It standardized and upgraded the educational systems of England and Wales, and led to a rapid growth of secondary schools, with over 1,000 opening by 1914, including 349 for girls. The Church schools now had solid financing from local ratepayers and had to meet uniform standards. Eventually, the Anglican schools were nationalized.

Education Act 1918

Education Act 1918 (8 & 9 Geo. V c. 39), often known as the Fisher Act, is an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. It was drawn up by Herbert Fisher. Note that the "Education Act 1918" applied to England and Wales, whereas a separate "Education (Scotland) Act 1918" applied for Scotland.

This raised the school leaving age to fourteen and planned to expand tertiary education. Other features of the 1918 Education Act included the provision of ancillary services (medical inspection, nursery schools, centres for pupils with special needs, etc.).

By the 1920s, the education of young children was of growing interest and concern to politicians, as well as to educationalists. As a result of this rising level of public debate, the Government of the day referred a number of topics for enquiry to the Consultative Committee of the Board of Education, then chaired by Sir William Henry Hadow. Altogether the Hadow Committee published three very important reports - 1926, 1931 and 1933.

Education Act 1944

The Education Act 1944 (7 and 8 Geo 6 c. 31) changed the education system for secondary schools in England and Wales. Called the "Butler Act" after the Conservative politician R. A. Butler, it introduced the Tripartite System of secondary education and made all schooling—especially secondary education, free for all pupils. It raised the school leaving age to 15 (though the stated intention that it should be 16 was not effected until 1972), but kept age 11 as the decision point for sending children to higher levels. Every school was required to begin the day with a nondenominational religious activity, and Anglican schools were continued. Historians consider it a "triumph for progressive reform," even though the principal sponsor was the Conservative minister and president of the Board of Education, R. A. Butler. He expressed the "One Nation Conservatism" in the tradition of Disraeli, which called for paternalism by the upper class towards the working class.

Changes

The new tripartite system consisted of three different types of secondary school: grammar schools, secondary technical schools and secondary modern schools. It allowed for the creation of comprehensive schools which would combine these strands, but initially only a few were founded. It also created a system of direct grant schools, under which a number of independent schools received a direct grant from the Ministry of Education (as distinct from local education authorities or LEAs) in exchange for accepting a number of pupils on "free places".

Education Act 2005

The Education Act 2005 (c 18) is an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. It was enacted in order to simplify the process of school improvement, strengthening the accountability framework for schools, in particular by amending the approach used by Ofsted when inspecting schools in England. This Act repealed the provisions of the School Inspections Act 1996.

The Act also brought about changes to the role of the Teacher Training Agency, broadened the need for local education authorities to invite proposals for new schools, and introduced 3-year budgets for maintained schools.

The Education Act is divided into five parts, which are summarised below:

Part 1 - School inspections and other inspections by school inspectors

This part of the Act sets out