Committee of Council on Education

Background notes

Treasury Minute

29 August 1833: set out rules regarding the distribution of the £20,000 grant for education

Orders in Council

10 April 1839: created the Committee of the Privy Council on Education

3 June 1839: approved the Committee of Council on Education's report on the distribution of funds for public education

Minutes of the Committee of Council on Education

24 September 1839: regulations governing the appropriation of grants

25 August and 21 December 1846: appointment of inspectors; teachers' qualifications and pensions; education of pupil teachers and stipendiary monitors; support for Normal Schools

6 August 1851: grants to certificated teachers in training schools

23 July 1852: grants to assistant teachers in elementary schools

2 April 1853: grants for the support of schools

20 August 1853: Queen's Scholars, apprentices and certificated teachers

2 June 1856: admission of Queen's Scholars and annual examination of students in training colleges

4 May 1859: cancelled Section 9 in the Minute of 20 August 1853

Revised Code 1862

Revised Code: Minutes and Regulations of the Committee of the Privy Council on Education

Instructions to HMI: advice on the administration of the Revised Code

The papers of the Committee of Council on Education were prepared by Derek Gillard and uploaded on 30 April 2016.

As reprinted in Reports on Elementary Schools 1852-1882 by Matthew Arnold, edited by FS Marvin and published by HMSO in 1908.

Note that the page numbers shown here are from the book, not from the original document.

[page 269]

Treasury Minute, August, 1833.

My Lords read the Act of the last session by which a sum of £20,000 is granted to His Majesty, to be issued in aid of private subscriptions for the erection of schools for the education of the children of the poorer classes in Great Britain.

The Chancellor of the Exchequer, feeling it absolutely necessary that certain fixed rules should be laid down by the Treasury for their guidance in this matter, so as to render this sum most generally useful for the purposes contemplated by the grant, submits the following arrangements for the consideration of the Board:-

(1) That no portion of this sum be applied to any purpose whatever except for the erection of new school-houses, and that in the definition of a schoolhouse the residence for masters or attendants be not included.

(2) That no application be entertained unless a sum be raised by private contribution equal at least to one-half of the total estimated expenditure.

(3) That the amount of private subscription be received, expended, and accounted for before any issue of public money for such school be directed.

(4) That no application be complied with unless upon the consideration of such a report either from the National School Society, or the British and

[page 270]

Foreign School Society, as shall satisfy this Board that the case is one deserving of attention, and there is a reasonable expectation that the school may be permanently supported.

(5) That the applicants whose cases are favourably entertained be required to bind themselves to submit to any audit of their accounts which this Board may direct, as well as to such periodical reports respecting the state of their schools, and the number of scholars educated, as may be called for.

(6) That in considering all applications made to the Board a preference be given to such applications as come from large cities and towns in which the necessity of assisting in the erection of schools is most pressing, and that due inquiries should also be made before any such application be acceded to, whether there may not be charitable funds or public and private endowments, that might render any further grants inexpedient or unnecessary.