Nation State versus National Identity: State and Inspectorate in Mid-Victorian Wales

Abstract

Her Majesty's Inspectorate of Schools in England and Wales was created in November 1839, a few months after the establishment ofthe Commit? tee of Council on Education, itself a symbol of the concern then mounting about the people's education. Before that, their schooling had been conducted entirely under voluntary auspices, mainly in the schools con? nected with the National Society or the British and Foreign School Soci? ety established in 1811 and 1814 respectively, to provide a basic education in literacy and numeracy, either within an Anglican or a more broadly Chris? tian framework. In 1833 the state had eventually intervened by granting ?20,000 to assist those Societies in building their schools, though each pound of grant had to be matched with locally raised funds.1 In the 1840s under James Kay-Shuttleworth, its first Secretary, the Committee of Council on Education sought to extend its powers, although faced with the established strength of the Societies he had to tread warily. Jealous of their independence, they were especially suspicious of the idea of a state inspectorate, and in creating Her Majesty's Inspectorate (HMI) of Schools, Kay-Shuttleworth was compelled to conclude a concordat with the Archbishop of Canterbury. Under this, it was agreed that only men approved by the ecclesiastical hierarchy would be appointed to inspect Church schools.2 Consequently although the inspectorate was an instru? ment ofthe emerging administrative state, the circumstances of its creation