CHAPTER 16 - Years of Decision in Education 1918–1945

Abstract

This chapter discusses the condition of education in England and Wales in 1918–1945. The years between the two World Wars were not stagnant and evidence of a vast upsurge of ideas was witnessed in a number of reports issued by the Consultative Committees of the Board of Education. The most prominent of these documents were produced by a succession of committees under the chairmanship of Sir Henry Hadow on The Education of the Adolescent (1926), Books in Public Elementary Schools (1928), The Primary School (1931), and Infant and Nursery Schools (1933). The reports were filled with ideas, for example the report on The Education of the Adolescent advocated a complete break at 11 + between primary and secondary education and the raising of the school leaving age to 15; the report on The Primary School focused attention on the child rather than on instruction and contained suggestions that would transform the old elementary school into a modern primary school; while that on Secondary Education recommended the development of secondary technical schools, envisaged a tripartite system at the secondary stage, and called for the raising of the school leaving age to 16.