Scotland in the nineteenth century

5. Education

Section 5.5: Schools

"appointed to inquire into the education of the lower orders, and to report their observations thereupon ... and who were instructed to extend their inquiries to Scotland."

The Lord Register of Scotland (pp. 3-5) gave evidence on the Scottish parochial schools. Every country parish in Scotland had its own parish school but the need for such schools was not so great in the larger towns where many public schools and private schools existed. Children could attend the parish school from the age of 6 or 7 until they were 14 or 15.

The landed proprietors in each parish were obliged to build the schoolhouses and provide the schoolmaster with a salary. They had the right, however, to ask the tenants to pay half the schoolmaster's salary. In addition, the teacher received fees from the pupils for instruction in certain subjects.

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The parish schools were attached to the established church. Although the landowners and people who had one hundred Scotch pounds of valued rent appointed the schoolmaster, he could be dismissed by the Presbytery or Church Court for negligence or bad conduct. The Presbyteries inspected the parochial schools and examined the children regularly. Catholics and Dissenters possessed many schools of their own but they sometimes sent their children to the parish schools.

Summing up the effects of the parochial school system, the Lord Register of Scotland said, "I think that parish schools, by making education general and popular, have led to the establishment of private schools by individuals, and to the augmentation of education."

Professor Pillans gave evidence on the Scottish parish schools system (pp. 30-57), which he praised for providing children with a secular education. The parochial school system had been in operation for approximately 150 years, but as the regulations were more concerned with how the schools were supported than how the children were educated, there was little uniformity between the different schools. This meant that the children's education depended on the quality of the individual master whose appointment was open to local influences as he was chosen by the landlord, or his agent, and the clergy.

The masters were generally poor, their salary being set by the price of corn, although they had also a quarter of an acre of land and a small two roomed house. The masters were generally those who were studying to enter the church or were not capable of manual labour. For the children, schooling started when they were 6 or 7 and lasted until they were 10 or 12. Professor Pillans believed that most Scottish children received some education, except in the larger urban areas, and that those who learnt to read generally retained the habit. Ireland had better conditions for learning with libraries attached to many schools.

"An account of all sums of money granted in aid of the erection of schools in England and Scotland, and of model schools in England; stating the places in which the schools are situated, the description of the school, and the respective amounts contributed."

Ten thousand pounds had been granted for aiding private subscriptions in the building of schools for poor children in the larger Scottish towns and also for model schools in England.

The Board decided that, unlike in England, the services of the British and Foreign, and National Schools Societies would not be used in finding suitable schools as enough requests had already been received.

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The money was to be allocated to cases where the grant would not be more than half the total required. The grant would only cover the school and not a master's house and the governors had to allow central auditing and inspection as and when the Board thought it necessary. The returns listed those places which had applied for money, the places chosen, including Glasgow, Paisley and Dundee, and the amount of the grant. Minimum standards for schools were also included.

Grants had been made by Parliament for the erection of school buildings and the Committee had been directed to inquire into the success of the scheme and the advisability of its extension to Scotland and Ireland.

Alexander Dorsey, an English teacher in the Glasgow High, School, gave evidence on Scotland, especially Glasgow (pp. 37-46), where he had previously taught in Mechanics Institutes and Sunday Schools. He said that at the Glasgow Mechanics Institute he had given 25 lectures for 2s., the average age of the audience was 18-20 years and the course had been designed for machine operators. At the High School students were charged two guineas per year and the parents tried to keep their children at the school from 6 to 16 if possible. Dorsey considered that the standard of education in Glasgow was now in decline.

At the High School new methods of education were being attempted with the children being taught to use their judgement not just their memories. He hoped that classes could be organised on Saturday evenings to provide an alternative to the public house and teacher training as the first step towards a general system of education.

Appendix 3: Details of the Scottish education system as presented by James Simpson to the Select Committee on Education, Ireland, 1835.

Section II (p. 19) relates specifically to grants awarded in Scotland. The return gives the name and location of the school claiming a grant, the population of the district, the number of scholars to be catered for, the estimated cost of building the school, the amount asked for and the amount of grant given. In Glasgow where it was proposed to build a school in the Gorbals district for 400 children at an estimated cost of £1300, a grant for £600 was requested and granted.

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The return includes abstracts from the questionnaires sent to the presbyteries of Scotland, showing the name of each parish with its populations in 1831, whether it is a rural or urban parish and how many children of each sex lived in the parish. It also documented the number of children under 5 who had been taught to read, the number between 5 and 15 who had been taught to read or were then learning, and the number learning to write.

The abstract also gave details of the number of parish schools and the number of teachers and their salaries, what the school fees were and what number of children attended the school. The same details were also given for non-parish schools.

The return gives details of the place applying for a grant with the date of application and the amount requested, the date of the reply and its content.

The return was divided into those applications which were successful, those which were refused and those awaiting the supply of further information.

The return lists schools and the amount of the grants awarded. Also included are two minutes (p. 9) relating to the £6,000 set apart as endowment aid for schoolmasters in the 41 Highland parishes. Of the £10,000 granted to Scotland, £3,905 was awarded as grant aid to the erection of new schools and £6,000 was used for Highland aid.

This was a preliminary inquiry for which a questionnaire had been prepared (pp. 5-8) to be sent to all the schools in Scotland.

Appendix: Abstract from all the Presbytery Books in Scotland of cases brought before the Presbyteries concerning parochial schoolmasters (pp. 9-15); containing the names of schools and masters, the nature of offences and the verdict and punishment allotted. Entries included cruelty to children and similar misconduct.

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The return contains the correspondence relating to the establishment of additional schools in the Highland and Islands under the Highland Schools Act, 1838.

It also contains a table of statistics showing the means of education in the parishes connected with the parliamentary churches (p. 7) and an abstract of remarks connected with the above parishes (pp. 8-13).

Answers came in three sections.

1. General, including information on the type of school whether day, Sunday or infant and when established.
2. Administrative, who supervises the school, how is it inspected and how were the teachers trained.
3. Instructive, mainly concerned with what was taught and how, but also including details on rewards and punishments.

The return is more detailed than that for England and gives information on the methods used in the schools, what books were used and if a playground was attached to the school.

At the end an abstract gives the totals for each question by county and by total for Scotland. This indicates that 924 schools answered the queries and 129 that were sent out were not returned, and that in 1837 there were 924 schools claiming to teach 61,921 children. There were 1,054 teachers, and in 534 cases a Sunday school or class was taught. Also of the 924 school listed 386 had playgrounds. Aberdeen had 93 schools with 6,703 scholars and 101 teachers, while Glasgow had returns for 86 non-parish and 10 parish schools.

As well as including correspondence concerning the appointment of the Scottish school inspectors, the return gives details of the questions to be asked by visiting inspectors. Also included was a petitition for the school system in Dunfermline to be inspected, and a letter from a committee of schoolmasters in Perth who refused to submit to Government inspection claiming they would only take authority from the Church as before. A Government Inspector was sent to Perth and he reported that the schoolmasters were concerned with declining standards but had relented in their attitude. Most of the reports showed that the clergy and the Scottish schools welcomed the Inspectors.

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The return gives details of the type of school, a return of bursaries, scholarships and fellowships and the number of people using the libraries.

The returns give details of parish schoolmasters and cases brought against them for misdemeanours.

The return gives evidence for thirty-two towns including Aberdeen, Dundee, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Inverness, Paisley and Perth. The information includes the name of the town and the school, the number of pupils and a general description of the school. In Glasgow the High School claimed 478 pupils and, in the absence of any parochial schools, was the only school with which the town council had a connection.

The entries in the return for Scotland give the name of the parish, religious denomination of the school, the amount of money raised, its source and the total cost of providing the school.

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"to inquire into the nature and amount of all endowments in Scotland, the funds of which are wholly or in part devoted, or have been applied ... to education purposes, and which have not been reported on by the Commissioners under the Universities (Scotland) Act, 1858; and also to inquire into the administration and management of any hospitals or schools supported by such endowments..."

The first report contained evidence on the administration and application of hospital and school endowments, university endowments, general and mixed endowments, teachers' fees and bursaries. Evidence was obtained from trustees and governors of various institutions, principals and professors of universities, headmasters of important schools and school inspectors. This was followed by answers to a circular addressed to the administrators of the funds belonging to hospitals in Scotland. These hospitals were charitable institutions in which children aged between 7 and 15 were fed, clothed and educated.

The second report contained further oral evidence and answers to the circular together with the returns of the university endowments not reported on by the Commissioners under the Universities (Scotland) Act, 1858.

In the third report a number of recommendations were made concerning the various endowments. The Commissioners thought that the number of charity foundations in the hospitals should be reduced and if possible the children should be boarded out in families. They recommended that a considerable proportion of places on each foundation should be thrown open to competition among boys who had completed their primary education, hospital schools should be open to all at moderate fees as day schools, and pupils paying fees should be admitted to an endowed elementary schools. Any surplus revenue should be applied to promote higher education.

"appointed under the Endowed Institutions (Scotland) Act, 1878."

Further petitions requesting alterations in the government or administration of a number of endowed institutions were submitted to the Commissioners. In many cases, the governing bodies felt that the original objects of the benefactions had been met by the Education Acts of 1872 and 1878 so they wanted to use their funds in a slightly different way. Many wanted to give money to poor and deserving parents not on the poor roll, to pay for the elementary education of their children or to establish bursaries or pay school fees to enable children to attend school after the age of 13, when education was no longer compulsory.

Tables were appended showing the amount proposed to be expended in bursaries for elementary, higher and university education (pp. xii-xiv).

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"appointed under the Educational Endowments (Scotland) Act, 1882..."

Educational endowments were divided into those above and those below an annual value of £50. In 1884, there were 250 endowments of £50 annual value or over, and 937 smaller endowments.

The Commissioners asked the governing bodies of all the important endowments to give evidence before them. The Assistant Commissioner was appointed to inquire into the smaller endowments in each parish. After meeting the governing bodies of each endowment and the School Boards, he submitted a report to the Commissioner. The latter then prepared draft schemes to submit to the Scottish Education Department.

The object of these schemes was defined in the Educational Endowments (Scotland) Act, 1882, which stated: "it is desirable to extend the usefulness of educational endowments in Scotland, and to carry out, more than is done at present, the spirit of the founder's intentions, so far as may be to make an adequate portion of such endowments available to affording to boys and girls of promise opportunities for obtaining higher education of the kind best suited to aid their advancement in life." If the funds of the endowment were sufficient, the Commissioners attempted to make provision in the schemes for the payment of fees for elementary education. They thought the children of poor parents should be selected by merit. It was very difficult to keep children at school beyond the age to which compulsory education extended. They thought that the funds should, therefore, be used to obtain one or two additional years of education for poor children. This should take the form of bursaries awarded by competition to those who had passed the fifth standard. University bursaries should be available for older children. Referring to the smaller burgh schools, Lord Balfour of Burleigh, Chairman of the Endowments Commission, said: "I think there are instances where the burgh schools are going down hill, and are actually being starved by the results of the policy of the Act of 1872." He thought that the school boards "grudged every penny."

The Committee thought that the high schools at Edinburgh, Glasgow and Aberdeen should remain under the control of the school boards but concluded that secondary education had been neglected by the school boards in smaller burghs. They thought secondary public schools should not be self-supporting and therefore recommended that parliamentary grants for higher education should be made to these schools.

The Committee also recommended that a public school should be maintained in each county parish, capable of preparing its best pupils for university education. Grant-aided primary schools with higher departments should be encouraged, and should not be allowed to compete unduly with secondary schools. Evening classes should be available for secondary and technical as well as elementary instruction. They thought leaving examinations should be set, granting certificates of competency.

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The author visited Easter Ross, the west coast of Rossshire, Lewis, Harris, North and South Uist, Skye and some parishes in Inverness and Argyllshire. He investigated:

1. the teaching of Gaelic
2. school attendance
3. the provision of opportunities for higher education
4. the expenditure on school building and the burden on rates.

He recommended:

1. The appointment of Gaelic-speaking teachers, when their other qualifications were equal to those of the other candidates, the use of Gaelic-speaking pupil teachers and that Gaelic should be recognised and taught as a specific subject.
2. Regarding the attendance problem, it should be made clear to parents that in keeping children away from school they were breaking the law, and the final remedy had to be the enforcement of that law. Attendance was extremely poor in the Islands. In Lewis "I have repeatedly found schools with 60 or 70 names on the books where the average attendance was about 20." Distance, the want of roads, bad weather, lack of warm clothes and adequate food were often used as excuses, but, in fact, the children were often employed cutting peat or herding cattle. The Senior Examiner suggested a daily meal might be provided for a penny or less.
3. The Highlanders were enthusiastic about higher education for the able child. Higher class schools should be established in Inverness, Dingwall, Stornoway, Portree, Tobermory, Oban and Kingussie.
4. Expenditure on the building of schools had, in some cases, resulted in extravagant buildings which involved costly repairs, e.g. in Harris, but most Highland schools were suited to their environment.