education

Process, beginning at birth, of developing intellectual capacity, skills, and social awareness, especially by instruction. In its more restricted sense, the term refers to the process of imparting literacy, numeracy, and a generally accepted body of knowledge.

History of education
The earliest known European educational systems were those of ancient Greece. In Sparta the process was devoted mainly to the development of military skills; in Athens, to politics, philosophy, and public speaking, but both were accorded only to the privileged few.

In ancient China, formalized education received impetus during the Han dynasty (206 BC–AD 220). An imperial decree in 165 BC established open competitive examinations for the recruitment of members of the civil service, based mainly on a detailed study of literature.

The Romans adopted the Greek system of education and spread it through Western Europe. Following the disintegration of the Roman Empire, widespread education vanished from Europe, although Christian monasteries preserved both learning and Latin. In the Middle Ages, Charlemagne's monastic schools taught the ‘seven liberal arts’: grammar, logic, rhetoric, arithmetic, geometry, music, and astronomy; elementary schools, generally presided over by a parish priest, instructed children of the poor in reading, writing, and arithmetic. From the monastic schools emerged the theological philosophers of the Scholastic Movement, which in the 11th–13th centuries led to the foundation of the universities of Paris (Sorbonne), Bologna, Padua, Oxford, and Cambridge. The capture of Constantinople, capital of the Eastern Roman Empire, by the Turks in 1453 propelled its Christian scholars into exile across Europe, and revived European interest in learning.

The Renaissance humanist movement encouraged the free study of all classical writers, both Latin and Greek, with the aim of assimilating their reasoning and making a philological study of the texts. It owed much to Arabic scholarly activity, which – beginning with the translation and augmentation of Greek scientific texts – had continued unabated during the Dark Ages and had reached Europe via Moorish influences in Sicily and Spain. The curriculum of humanist schools, of which Latin was the foundation, was widely adopted, although by the 17th century it had failed to adapt to society's changing needs and by the early 18th century organized education was at a low level.

Compulsory attendance at primary schools was first established in the mid‐18th century in Prussia, and has since spread almost worldwide. Compulsory schooling in industrialized countries is typically from around age 5 or 6 to around age 15 or 16; in 2001 public education expenditure was around 5% of GNP (Spain 3.2%, Japan 4.4%, Denmark 7.7%).

The role of church and state
In England and Wales, prior to the Reformation, the undivided church was responsible for education. Thereafter, the question of the control of education became a source of bitter sectarian conflict, and it was not until the 19th century that attempts were made to spread literacy throughout society. In Scotland, as early as 1496, freeholders were required by royal statute to send their heirs to school to acquire ‘perfect Latin’, and from the late 16th century, under the influence of John Knox, churches in every major town had Latin schools attached.

Education 1750–1870
Before 1800 elementary education was delivered by the public schools and local fee‐paying ‘grammar’ schools, and for the poor by dame schools and, after 1780, Sunday schools. Ragged schools were established after 1820. The government did not fund educational provision, neither did it take any measures such as inspection to ensure the quality of education, though it did intervene to ensure that Leeds Grammar School taught Latin and Greek in preference to more modern subjects such as science. Britain's education system had fallen behind those of countries such as Germany and France.

However, as the Industrial Revolution progressed, it was obvious that skilled engineers, scientists, and mechanics were needed, and that the workforce should be at least literate and numerate. The Factory Act of 1802, which applied throughout the UK, required that during the first four years of their apprenticeship children employed by the owners of the newly arising factories were taught reading, writing, and arithmetic. The requirement was not always observed, but it embodied a new principle. The Factory Act of 1833 required working children to have at least two hours schooling a day – some factories set up factory schools to do this, although the quality of teaching was generally poor.

The British and Foreign Schools Society (1810) and the National Society for Promoting the Education of the Poor in the Principles of the Established Church (1811) set up schools in which basic literacy and numeracy as well as religious knowledge were taught. Schools used the monitorial system of Andrew Bell and Joseph Lancaster, and the primary method of instruction was learning by rote. In 1833 the government made its first grants to education, £20,000 to be divided between the two societies, a sum which was gradually increased year on year. In 1840 a teacher training college was founded at Battersea, London.

Nevertheless, when the Newcastle Commission reported in 1861, it found that less than one half of Britain's children went to school, and that less than half of these could read and write when they left school. It recommended that schools be ‘paid by results’ as the way to address their inadequacies, and set up a system of inspectors to test the children's learning. In 1862 government grants became available for schools attended by children up to 12.

Education 1870–1902
The Elementary Education Act of 1870 (also known as Forster's Act, after the Liberal reformer William Forster who secured its passage) established district school boards all over the country whose duty was to provide facilities for the elementary education of all children aged 5–11 not otherwise receiving it. The act enabled low school fees to be charged. It allowed the church schools to continue as before and doubled their annual grants, but religious education (RE) was not compulsory in the ‘board schools’. Education was made compulsory in 1876 for children aged 5–10. In 1891 elementary education was made free, and in 1899 the school‐leaving age was raised to 12. Payment by results was dropped in 1900, which encouraged many schools to introduce subjects other than the ‘3Rs’ (reading, writing, and arithmetic).

Education 1902 to the present
The school boards were abolished by the Education Act of 1902 and their responsibilities transferred to county and borough councils, which became the local education authorities for both higher and elementary education, and for teacher training. This led to the increasing provision of free state secondary grammar schools, and in 1918 the Fisher Act (named after Herbert Fisher, president of the Board of Education) raised the school‐leaving age to 14. In 1926 the Hadow Commission recommended the provision of free secondary education for all.

Once the principle of elementary education for all was established, the idea of widely available higher education began to be accepted. The Education Act of 1944 introduced a system of secondary education for all, and formed the foundation of much education policy today. This was revised by further acts in 1979 and 1980, which repealed 1975 legislation enforcing comprehensive reorganization, and gave new rights to parents; by the 1981 Education Act which made new provisions for the education of children with special needs; and by legislation in 1986 giving further powers to school governors as part of a move towards increased parental involvement in schools, and in 1987 on the remuneration of teachers. In 1988 a major act introduced a compulsory national curriculum in state schools, compulsory testing of children, financial delegation of budgets to schools, and the possibility of direct funding by government for schools that voted to opt out of local council control.

Responsibility for education
In the UK, the Department for Education and Skills (DfES), headed by a cabinet minister, is responsible for non‐military scientific research, for universities throughout Great Britain, and for school education in England. The DfES was established in 1944 as the Ministry of Education, and was known as the Department for Education and Employment (DfEE) until 2001. In Wales, primary and secondary education is the responsibility of the Welsh Education Office. In Scotland, there is the Scottish Education Department, under the secretary of state for Scotland. Until direct rule (1972), Northern Ireland had its own Ministry of Education; the responsibility for education is now held by the Education and Library Boards.

Local education authorities (LEAs) are education committees of county and borough councils, responsible for providing educational services locally under the general oversight of the DfES, but certain of their powers have been curtailed by the 1988 act. The Inner London Education Authority (ILEA) was abolished by the 1988 act and responsibility for education in London passed to the borough councils.