Gateway Chronicle 2022

significance of the Act came from setting a
precedent for future acts.
Furthermore, the 1870 Education Act had
limited significance in the area of the
secularisation of schools. This is because
the Act introduced non-denominational
religious teaching to schools and allowed
for parents to withdraw their children from
religious education in non-church schools.
Before the 1870 Act most children
attended schools set up by the church.
This was due to the fact that from 1833 the
government gave grants to these church
schools. Due to the passage of the 1870
Education Act this allowed schools to be
set up by school county boards, which
were to be free from the church and were
to teach religious education in a nondenominational
method. Moreover, the Act
gave provisional funding for schools to be
set up as it allowed school boards to use
local rate-payers to set up new schools.
However, the Act was not as significant as
it could have been in dealing with the
secularisation of schools due to the
Christian principles of then Prime Minister
William Gladstone. This meant that a
compromise instead had to be struck with
the Church of England. Church schools
were exempt from teaching religious
education in a non-denominational method.
Often to save funding school boards would
simply allocate additional government
funding to pre-existing church schools to
create new places for children. This was as
opposed to building new schools, which
would be exempt from religious teaching.
For example, between 1870-1885 the
number of Church of England schools rose
from around 6,300 to around 11,800 in
England. The number of Catholic schools
rose from 350 to 892. This meant that
many of the children who began attending
schools following the passage of the Act
went to schools run by the Church. This
meant that although there was some
secularisation of schools caused by the
1870 Education Act, the change was not
as significant as it could have been.
Therefore, the only real significance of the
1870 Education Act was in setting a
precedent for future acts.
Moreover, the 1870 Education Act had
some limited significance in making
schools more accountable to the
government. This is because the Act led to
school boards being set up in each council,
which were to be responsible for inspecting
each school and ensuring they met the
minimum government standards of the
time. The Act meant that the country was
divided into 2500 school districts and each
would have responsibility for schools in the
area. The boards themselves were
accountable as they were voted for by the
rate-payers in the area. However, for a
number of reasons the Act was limited in
its significance. The first reason was that a
high number of schools were exempt from
the Act. This was because school boards
had no oversight of church schools.
Additionally, school boards ranged in size
which affected their success in overseeing
schools. For example, some boards would
oversee only one school in their district,
whilst the biggest board, the London board
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