History of education in England Introduction.
Nowadays more and more people tend to receive education abroad, and England is one of the most popular countries for learning there. The UK has many prestigious universities and they really attract people. Young students are usually sent there by their parents in order to get an overseas diploma and professional skills. This is not surprising because the educational system in England has been developing for many centuries and today it is one of the best in the world, meeting the highest quality standards.
The topic “History of education in England” generated my interest because Russian people are not well acquainted with the education system in the UK nowadays. Perhaps we have heard some information about the modern education system but we do not know anything about its earlier periods.
I would like to know the origin of education in the UK. It is interesting to know what changes it has undergone and what does it look like nowadays. It is also very interesting to learn about events and people that contributed into development and improvement of the education system.
The beginning of the educational system.
The history of public education in England can be traced since the settlement of England by the Anglo-Saxons and even earlier, up to the days of Roman rule. There were settings of the first cathedral schools in 597 and 604. Before then education was an oral affair.
In the Middle ages schools were opened to teach Latin grammar to the sons of the aristocracy while the main way of mastering practical skills was the apprenticeship.
There were established two universities in connection with the Church: the first one - University of Oxford, and then Cambridge University, to assist in training the clergy.
Thus, the Church provided education to all classes of society. People could get an education in monasteries, at public schools, orphanages, charity schools, grammar schools, church foundations, or by the chaplains to private households. Education of that time was closely tied to the religious vocation, in order to read the Bible and related documents.
Until the nineteenth century, all University fellows and many students had to be in Holy orders.
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Middle ages.
Boarding schools appeared in Britain in the middle Ages, they mostly were opened at monasteries. From the twelfth century the Pope introduced the obligation for all Benedictine monasteries to create charitable schools. Later they began to charge a fee for education.
At first, aristocratic families believed that it is better for children to learn at home than in monastic schools, but then they understood that, regardless of origin, it is better for children to gain knowledge with their coevals.
It is the view became the foundation for the formation and development of privileged pensions, some of which operate to this day and for over thousands of years have been teaching and nurturing the elite of British modern society.
During the reign of Edward VI a system of free grammar schools was established, thus a national system of "free grammar schools" in England appeared. These schools were opened for everyone, offering free education, so theoretically those who had not much money still could receive knowledges, but in reality the majority of the children did not attend school as their parents needed them to help with the housework, farming.
In 1564 in order to regulate and protect the apprenticeship system, “Statute of Artificers and Apprentices” was passed, forbidding anyone from practicing a trade or craft without serving a 7-year period as an apprentice to a master firstly.
Following the Act of Uniformity in 1662, religious dissenters set up academies to educate students of dissenting families, who did not wish to subscribe to the articles of the established Church of England.
From 1692 the Elizabeth’s Poor Law came to be used to provide education to children from poor families, illegitimate children and orphans of both sexes alongside the regular system of apprenticeship.
In practice, mainly boys studied in such schools, the genetic origin of which was seen as a favourable prerequisite for the provision of education . Students were directed as apprentices to the rather low social status industries , for example, on farms, brick factories and as servants in rich families.
Since the Middle ages and until the late nineteenth century it was assumed (and in some educational institutions even required) for graduates and many school teachers to accept the Holy orders or join the Church.
Women were allowed for teaching in girls’ schools, charity school, and they usually taught there the three Rs (reading, writing and 'rithmetic).
By the end of XVII in the spirit of new trends, some urban authorities began to open secondary schools in England, which curriculum consisted of classical languages. At the same time there began to appear private schools, the so-called academies, with the same training program, which later merged with secondary schools.