The Education Act of 1870, which provided that every child in England and Wales should have the opportunity to receive elementary education, had far-reaching implications both inside and outside the classroom. Schools, Politics and Society: Elementary Education in Wales, 1870–1902, is a revealing study of education in late-Victorian Wales. It also analyses the emergence of local democracy at the end of the nineteenth century and assesses the role of political and religious leadership at a crucial time in Wales’s history.
Robert Smith’s comprehensive study examines the developments set in train by the 1870 Act. Educational standards improved, teaching methods altered and the role of the teacher in society changed. Yet the implementation of the Act also led to controversy. There was conflict between a new generation of policy-makers who wished to introduce the Welsh language to the classroom, and certain inspectors, parents and teachers who remained implacably hostile to such a step. There were arguments about whether or not there should be religious instruction in schools and, if so, what form it should take. The establishment of School Boards in Welsh parishes revealed complex financial, economic and personal features which were frequently at odds with political or denominational loyalties. This important book questions some of the traditional notions about Welsh society at the end of the nineteenth century.
Robert Smith is a Research Fellow at the Centre for Advanced Welsh and Celtic Studies, University of Wales.