Some Sources for the History of the Endowed Schools Commission, 1869-1900

Abstract

t is generally agreed among educational historians that the establishment of the Endowed Schools Commission in 1869 following the Report of the Taunton Commission (1864-68)1 on the state of schools offering an education above that of elementary led to many changes in secondary education in the last 30 years of the nineteenth century. Although most writers refer to the Commission, there has been little systematic attempt so far to examine its work in detail. It is hoped to show here some of the sources which are available for making such a study. Briefly, the tasks of the Endowed Schools Commission were to redistribute charitable endowments which were not being fully utilized and to widen the areas which would receive benefits from them; to ensure that schools were put on a sound financial footing; to establish the 'grade' of a school in a given area; to reform governing bodies and trustees; to destroy the Church qualification for headmasters, assistant masters and pupil entry; and to provide in the schemes for boys of ability the opportunity of benefiting from the reformed schools through exhibitions and scholarships. This enormous task was to be completed in 3 years in the first instance by 3 full-time Commissioners and a number of Assistant Commissioners. The Commission itself, the brainchild of a Liberal Government, was destroyed by Disraeli after the Conservative victory in 1874. Nevertheless, the work of the Commission was carried on on similar lines as a Department of the Charity Commission, but retaining its own identity and staff. On the creation of the Board of Education in 1899, the officers of the Endowed Schools Department were absorbed into the Secondary Branch of the Education Department. Part 2 of the original Endowed Schools Act 1869 envisaged the creation of an Educational Council, consisting of University representatives and Crown nominees, working through Provincial Councils which would cover the whole country. Under this section of the Act, endowed schools could have been examined in any subject by the Council's inspectors and a Teachers' Registration Council was to have been set up. This part of the Bill was bitterly attacked and subsequently dropped, 1 See 'Sources for the History of the English Grammar School-II', W. E. Tate, in