ADULT EDUCATION DURING 1833-1913

Socio-Cultural Environment Of Adult Education During 1833-1913



Socio-Cultural Environment Of Adult Education During 1833-1913

Enclosure, industrialisation and population growth during the early nineteenth century contributed to enormous social, economic and political changes in Britain. The government, faced with complex new challenges, was under pressure to reform - for example, to provide free, compulsory, state-controlled education, which was already provided in some European countries. However, the dominant force in British politics, the Tories, were fearful of the social consequences of providing the masses with an education and were unwilling to pay for it. The prevailing attitude of laissez-faire, the distrust of state interference and the general opinion that education was best left to the church meant that elementary education was left entirely to voluntary organisations such as Charity schools and the two rival Religious societies, Joseph Lancaster's non-conformist 'British and Foreign Schools Society' (initially formed in 1808) and the Church of England's 'National Society for the Education of the Poor in the Principles of the Established Church' (set up in competition in 1811).

The non-conformist 'British Schools', supported by Samuel Whitbread, William Wilberforce and other reformists, played a major part in the provision of education but it was the National Society that was most successful during this period, not surprisingly as it was supported by the Anglican Church which benefited from the tithe (a form of tax paid to the church) while the other organisations relied upon charity. However, there were insufficient resources to provide every child with an elementary education. The Select Committee on the Education of the Lower Orders in the Metropolis, 1816-1818, reported that:

"a very great deficiency exists in the means of educating the poor" (cited in Taylor, 1988:280)

Whigs (reformists) believed that greater state involvement was required but economically, children were a valuable asset both to the factory owners and to parents so very few working class children had the time to receive an education as they were labouring alongside their parents. Furthermore, as previously mentioned, the ruling classes were opposed to the repercussions of wholesale education and could perceive no political or economic benefit from an educated working class.

In 1830 Earl Grey, a Whig, was elected Prime Minister and the 1832 Reform Act, Althorp's Factory Act of 1833 and the 1834 Poor Law followed. The Reform Act gave the vote to a much larger percentage of the population forcing politicians to consider the feelings of the general public; Althorp's Factory Act made it illegal for children under nine to be employed in textile mills, effectively providing many more prospective pupils for the schools; and under The Poor Law schools were to be provided and maintained by the guardians of the poor. Meanwhile, campaigners were pressing for greater state involvement which the government desperately wanted to avoid; to appease the radical reformists the first annual grant of £20,000 was awarded in August 1833. Split equally between the two religious organisations, both felt the division was unfair and the rivalry and resentment between them was further ...