Roman and mediaeval eras

The Bard, depiction of a travelling bard by Thomas Jones (1774)

The Roman province of Britannia (which included modern day Wales) is generally considered to have had relatively low levels of literacy, by the standards of the Roman Empire, and there is little record of formal education. Writing tablets have been recovered in the Roman military fort of Isca Augusta (modern day Caerleon, Newport).^[1] In the period after Roman withdrawal from Great Britain literacy in what is today Wales was largely restricted to the clergy. They were educated in monastic settlements, which were centres of learning. Illtud established one at Llantwit Major which was particularly known for its scholarship. For most people the wide range of skills and knowledge needed for the work they did was passed orally from one generation to the next. Bards played a significant role in maintaining cultural memory.^[2]

Throughout much of the Middle Ages even the highest-ranking members of the lay population could often go without formal education, though this steadily changed. Towards the end of the period the growth of towns and the increased use of writing in the justice system led to more need for bureaucracy. Meanwhile the skills needed for many trades were becoming increasingly complex and the vocational education of the period, seven-year apprenticeships, was controlled by the guilds. Aristocratic children could receive their education through private tuition, but those aiming for a career in the Church would usually attend grammar schools generally linked to cathedrals. These schools gave a classical education based on the trivium and the quadrivium. The seven subjects of study were grammar, dialectic/rhetoric, arithmetic, geometry, music and astronomy. The impact of the Black Death and the Glyndŵr rebellion harmed the Welsh elite's prospects for education, but there was a steady expansion in the 15th century. There was also a growing appreciation of the value of formal education and increasing demand for it among wealthier landowners. However the growth of formal education was slower in Wales than in England. In Wales formal education remained almost entirely dominated by the Church until after 1500.^[2]

16th and 17th centuries

Original building of Beaumaris Grammar School on the Isle of Anglesey

According to historians Gareth Elwyn Jones and Gordon Wynne Roderick, the 16th century saw a growth in demand for formal education among "the middling sort of people — merchants, professional people, shopkeepers, freeholders, skilled craftsmen and lesser landowners". They wrote that this was a result of a more stable social situation along with the Laws in Wales Acts which made Wales formally a part of the Kingdom of England^{[note 1]} and created a more developed system of local government. In the 16th and early 17th centuries, several new grammar schools were established to cater to this demand.^[2] Often schools did not have purpose-built buildings but used other facilities such as churches. When schoolhouses were built there was little sense of schools being their own category of building, and they tended to resemble the residential houses of the time. Teaching was always conducted in a single room and the norm was only one schoolmaster. Schools frequently included accommodation for the master, usher (assistant teacher) and sometimes boarding pupils. There was at least one example in Wales of a grammar school including a field for boys to play.^[3]

The grammar schools were all boys' schools. They catered to a varied age range, sometimes as wide as from 8 to 19 years. However they were essentially secondary schools, which expected boys to be literate before enrolling. The pupil numbers were generally fairly low, ranging from about twenty to 120 at the largest school in Ruthin. The emphasis of instruction was on Latin and less often Ancient Greek. The Renaissance ideal of a wider curriculum had little practical effect on schools; if anything teaching became narrower, with more emphasis on grammar and literature taught through reciting and dictation. There was some criticism of this approach at the time, but this had next to no practical effect. Discipline was strict, with the birch being used to punish both bad behaviour and poor academic progress. Fees were usually expected. Grammar schools were frequently required by their original endowments to provide some free places but the cost of materials needed for lessons restricted the boys that could take them up. The upper end of the gentry often sent their sons to more prestigious grammar schools in England. Despite their limitations the increasing number of grammar schools provided a major expansion in education availability for boys, but opportunities for girls were far more limited.^[2]

Alongside the grammar schools there were a small number of schools providing elementary education. For instance one school in Montgomeryshire described its aim in 1549 as being to teach "young beginners only to write and sing, and to read so far as the Accidence Rules^{[note 2]}, but no grammar". Endowments for elementary schools often referenced "children" rather than "boys" or "scholars", suggesting that they might have admitted girls. There were a variety of other more informal ways that some children may have received some basic education. For example tutors employed to educate the offspring of the wealthy might expand their lessons to a wider group of children and some priests educated their young parishioners.^[2][3] However for the vast majority of the population in the 16th and much of the 17th century formal education was unattainable. In the early 17th century around 20% of people in Wales were literate in Welsh or English. Historians Gareth Elwyn Jones and Gordon Wynne Roderick argue that the peasantry generally was not interested in literacy as it held little practical advantage for them.^[2]

The Reformation changed the typical experience of religious education. Previously with services recited in Latin by priests often with little understanding, most people's main engagement with religion had come from the images that decorated places of worship. These were discarded with the Reformation, and the growing Puritan movement became concerned about poor levels of literacy. As Wales had particularly low levels of education and had been one of the most royalist areas in the Civil War, Oliver Cromwell's government decided that state intervention was needed. A 1650 Act appointed a commission that established sixty schools in Wales; these partially resembled the grammar schools but also gave an elementary level education. They were funded by the church. These schools were short-lived: only 21 still existed by 1660 and they disappeared entirely after the Restoration. There was ultimately little evidence that the kinds of people they were intended for wanted their children to go to school.^[2] In the early 1670s clergyman Thomas Gouge began to preach in Wales; by 1675 he had established 87 schools which were attended by a total of 2225 children.^[4] The schools were intended "to teach the poor Welsh children to read and write English, cast Accompts [numeracy] and repeat the Catechism." They closed after his death in 1681.^[5] The Society for the Promotion of Christian Knowledge (SPCK) was founded in 1699 with similar aims.^[6] Four of this organisation's five founders had Welsh links.^[7]

Early 19th century

In the first half of the 19th century education began to be seen as something of a civilising mission. A sense of anxiety was developing about the condition of the working classes in Wales, especially in the South Wales Valleys. The Industrial Revolution had brought significant social upheaval and children in particular were seen as newly vulnerable to immorality. While working-class parents were felt to be more interested in pursuing pleasure for themselves than educating the young. These worries were reinforced by various instances of significant social unrest concerning movements such as Chartism, Scotch Cattle and the Rebecca Riots.^[11] This was a time when the American Revolutionary War and French Revolution had shaken the Western world fairly recently, living conditions were extremely poor and there was a sincere fear of revolution.^[8] Schooling was believed to be an effective response to these problems. In an 1843 report HMI^{[note 3]} H.W Belliars described a "band of efficient schoolmasters" as a cheaper alternative to "a body of police or of soldiery" to manage "an ill-educated, undisciplined population, such as exists among the mines of South Wales".^[11] There was, however, a degree of scepticism towards the idea of creating a state education system. Some saw schooling as a matter for the church, others believed that education was a form of charity rather than a right or thought that giving the state that amount of power over the upbringing of the next generation would be a threat to liberty.^[12]

School in Sketty, Swansea photographed by Augustus Lennox (1854)

In the early 19th century the British and Foreign School Society (which was Nonconformist) and the National Society for Promoting Religious Education (which was Anglican) were founded. These organisations began to establish "voluntary schools".^[13] In practice a large majority of voluntary schools belonged to the latter group which had various practical advantages. In Wales the Anglican schools were reported to be poorly attended as Nonconformists,^[13] who formed a clear majority of the Welsh population,^[14] preferred private schools. Though the proportion of day school^{[note 4]} pupils at private schools fell in Wales from 58% in 1833 to 26% in 1851.^[13] Another form of elementary education available in this period were works schools run by industrialists for the education of the children of their workers.^[12] While school participation rates in the early-to-mid 19th century are somewhat hard to assess, a lower proportion of the population were enrolled in day schools in Wales than in England or Scotland.^[13] One estimate is that 85% of children in Wales between five- and fifteen-years-old were not in day school in 1821.^[11] Sunday schools were often used as a substitute for full-time schooling. In 1844, 56% of grooms and 35% of brides were able to sign the marriage register in South Wales counties, this was lower than in any individual Scottish or English county. That year 58% of grooms and 39% of brides in North Wales counties were able to do so, the ratio being lower than any Scottish or English county other than Monmouthshire (then part of England) and Staffordshire. The number of people who were able to write was lower than those who could read during this period because reading was seen as a more basic skill which was taught first and tended to be more practically useful for most people. According to historian T.B Stephens:^[13]

... in Wales and Monmouthshire educational progress suffered from the difficulties Welsh speakers experienced in schools using English as the medium of instruction, from the absence of resident gentry, the weakness of the Church of England and the opposition of dissenters to its influence. This was compounded by widespread poverty and the expansion of coal mining.

Growing government involvement

From 1833 the voluntary schools began to receive government funding.^[15] In 1839 the Committee of the Privy Council on Education (CCE) was formed which conducted state inspections of schools receiving grants in England and Wales for the first time. For its first report in 1840 HMI Hugh Seymour Tremenheere visited 35 schools in mining areas of South Wales. He wrote that the schools were "‘for the most part, dirty and close [unventilated]" and one was "so filthy and disgusting that the inquiry had to be conducted from outside". Most of the schools were lacking in books and equipment while teachers maintained discipline using "loud exclamations and threats". Contrastingly HMI Harry Longueville Jones was impressed by the quality of teaching he found on his first tour of 190 schools across Wales in 1849. He complimented various teachers as "very able", "studious", "clever", "well informed", "alert" and "well respected". He also noted a few teachers with exceptional abilities such as one working near Pwllheli who taught Latin to his most able pupils and another in Llanidloes whose "forte lies in his music".^[11] An 1847 government report included lists of the subjects taught in every day school in Wales. The lists tended to focus heavily on reading, writing, arithmetic and religion. Some schools taught a wider range of subjects such as vocal music, grammar, drawing, geography and history. The schools that did this were mainly works schools associated with the smelting industry in South Wales. In 1863 a visitor to Llynfi Ironworks School, which had 800 pupils, recorded that...^[12]

I remember a long, wide room, sloping down gradually to the dais at the bottom, where the head-teacher ruled. Discipline was unduly harsh. The children were very mixed - Welsh, English and Irish.^{[note 5]} Several children were barefooted and pale. The curriculum was rather stereotyped and scanty. Reading, writing and arithmetic mostly. Very little history, and geography consisted of map-drawing and remembering names.^[12]

Abergavenny Boys National School (1865)

The Newcastle Commission led to the introduction Revised Code of 1862. The code introduced a system of payment by results with grants given based on pupils' knowledge of the three R's and attendance. The code has been praised for its perceived objectivity as well as for encouraging teachers to focus on literacy and numeracy.^[11][16] At times this system placed significant power over schools in the hands of individual inspectors in a way that could be quite arbitrary and lead to controversy. For instance, in his autobiography, HMI Sneyd-Kynnersley recalled 7-year-old Angharad who had told him she did not know the answer to a sum but who he decided to pass anyway due to her "frankness, combined with good looks". In a different case schoolmaster James Kelly left his job at St David’s Roman Catholic school in Cardiff after a poor inspection report in 1863. Unusually Kelly decided to formally complain to the Education Department. He alleged HMI John Reynell Morell spent less than 20 minutes in the school during which time the children were quiet before leaving after saying "I will make a report sufficient for the grant". Morell was dismissed (officially for missing appointments) following an investigation during which both men attacked each other's character. Morell privately published his own version of events. Historian Russell Grigg suggests that a possible explanation for his conduct was that he was responsible for inspecting schools across 17 counties in England and Wales. The system also created a temptation for corruption among teachers. For instance, upon a check of birth certificates, it was found that most of the pupils at Llwynypia Colliery Infant School were over the age of eight making it ineligible for certain grants for infant schools. The attendance records had also been falsified and the register destroyed in "a very suspicious circumstance". They had two-thirds of their grant removed and were given a warning.^[11]

In the 1860s there was growing political pressure in England and Wales for a significant intervention in the elementary education system. It was becoming increasingly clear that education provision through the voluntary societies was inadequate for a growing population. In Wales, at the end of the decade, there were school places for 60% of school-aged children with significant geographic variances. In Merthyr Tydfil places were available for only 22%. Meanwhile there were concerns that rapidly industrialising France and Prussia, which had state education systems, were a threat to Britain's status as the world's most industrialised country. The Second Reform Act which extended the franchise to a wider cross-section of the male population led to worries about ignorant voters making unwise decisions. Elsewhere the American Civil War and Austro-Prussian War were won by powers with developed state education systems. In Wales political pressure for change took the form of the Educational Alliance Society founded in 1870.^[17]

Secondary education

Advertisement for a secondary-level school in Aberystwyth (1879)

Secondary education provision during this period was very limited in Wales. The situation was much worse than in England which was itself not particularly impressive by international standards.^[18] In the 1850s HMI Harry Longueville Jones argued for the creation of evening schools to teach maritime skills given that many boys became sailors after leaving school. The Taunton Commission in 1868 noted that twenty towns in Wales with an average population of 11,000 lacked grammar schools.^[11] The commission identified 28 boys grammar schools with combined pupil numbers of 1,100. These schools tended to be located in areas that had once been focuses of the Welsh economy but were now far from the new population centres. As the aristocracy and new industrial elite tended to employ tutors or send their sons to the English public schools, pupils were mainly the sons of the same middle-class group that had attended them since the 16th century with the upper middle classes themselves drifting towards English boarding schools. 24 of the 28 were classified as giving classical or semi-classical education which seemed outdated to parents of many potential pupils in a changed economy. The fees were too high for many middle-class households and Nonconformists saw the schools as being under Anglican influence.^[18]

Meanwhile girls were especially poorly catered for. The Howell Foundation had established two girls' schools in 1860 based on the endowment of a draper which were mainly attended by Anglicans. Some families also employed governesses for teenage girls. The Taunton Commission noted an apathy to their daughters' education among many middle-class parents. The role of a middle-class woman in the Victorian era was to act as a supportive figure for her family. Superficial "accomplishments", rather than serious academic study, were believed to be needed for girls. There were several private secondary schools for girls and boys. Some provided good quality education, but most were mediocre.^[18]

Late Victorian elementary education

School originally opened as Albany Road Board School in Cardiff in 1886

Class photo at Tywyn Boys School by John Thomas (1890)

Class photo at Aberdyfi girls' school by John Thomas (c.1885)

Recreation of a Victorian era classroom at the Carmarthenshire County Museum^[19]

According to historian T.B Stephens the Elementary Education Act 1870 began the transition to compulsory education and a school system run directly by the state. However he describes it as a compromise which only started that process. It required school boards run by locally elected officials to be established in areas where there were "insufficient places in efficient voluntary schools" to run additional schools. The boards were allowed but not required to make education compulsory. A power that was extended to other districts in 1876.^[13] Compulsory education was introduced for 5- to 10-year-olds across England and Wales by the Elementary Education Act 1880.^[15] 10- to 13-year-olds could leave school once they had reached a certain academic standard.^[16] Attendance was made free in 1891, the minimum school leaving age was increased to 11 in 1893 and 12 in 1899. Compulsory education was also extended to deaf and blind children in 1893.^[20]

A number of school boards were very active in expanding school provision. Many new schools were built by the boards over the thirty years after their introduction with the overall number of schools more than doubling. The boards also took over a large number of works and non-conformist schools. In 1900 1,709 schools in Wales were receiving public funds of which 893 were board schools, 687 were Anglican schools and 51 were Nonconformist schools. 65% of school places were at board schools which were concentrated to a large extent in urbanised areas. Rural school boards also contributed to the expansion of education.^[17] There was however a level of apathy towards education among school boards and local law enforcement in many of these areas especially. For instance a representative of Lord Powis told a parliamentary enquiry in 1902 that he believed between 40% and 50% of children in the Welshpool area were out of school at harvest time and that even local education officials in mid-Wales sent their children out to work in the fields.^[11] At the time of the 1870 Education Act many school buildings were of a poor quality, lacking proper facilities and healthy conditions. The Education department pushed for improvements. Some of the poorer, smaller school boards employed local builders to design their new schools but most recruited professional architects.^[17]

The elementary education system in Wales during this period closely resembled that of England. Both in what it taught and how it was administered. However Welsh schools were often particularly enthusiastic about music, largely singing. While the schools provided a basic education for almost all children they were not without their limitations. The payment-by-results scheme encouraged an emphasis on rote learning and teaching to the test. Though the curriculum steadily expanded with payments available to schools for results in history, geography, science, domestic science, metalwork and woodwork. Classes were large, varied in age, ability and pupils were often from impoverished households. Resources of all kinds were lacking. Discipline was difficult to maintain and the cane often made use of. The newspapers frequently featured stories about teachers whose punishments were so severe that they ended up on trial for assault. Poor attendance was also a problem. Various factors contributed to this including outbreaks of childhood diseases, indifferent parents, child labour and initially fees that were difficult for many households to pay. The overall level of attendance in Wales was 75.6% in 1899.^[17]

Aberdare Committee, intermediate schools and evening classes

The Aberdare Committee of 1881 emphasised the need for improved secondary education, especially for girls.^[11] The committee envisaged a four-tier system of secondary education. The social elite would continue to attend English public schools. The upper end of the middle classes would attend "first grade" intermediate schools which would continue until the age of 18 or 19 and prepare the most able for Oxbridge. Lower middle-class children (a new group to receive secondary education) along with the most gifted and determined working-class children would attend "second grade" intermediate schools which would take them up to the age of 16. Fees would therefore be kept relatively low for this group and some scholarships provided. Below them would be the "higher grade" schools which had been created as quasi-secondary schools for higher performing children by the school boards and were not covered in the 1889 act. The witnesses spoken to by the committee were mainly middle class, the handful of working-class witnesses spoken to also expressed a strong desire for education but it was hard for middle-class people to imagine that many working-class children would be interested.^[17] The committee led to the Welsh Intermediate Education Act of 1889 predating similar legislation in England by thirteen years.^[11]

Class photo at an intermediate school in St Davids by John Thomas (1899)

Girls Intermediate School, Aberdare (1913)

By around 1900 there were 7,000 children in the intermediate schools including almost as many girls as boys. A plurality of the schools were single-sex, a large number catered for both sexes in a segregated manner while a small number were mixed. While the schools had been intended primarily for the middle classes in some areas as many as a third of pupils were of working-class backgrounds. For a long time the main curriculum of a majority of intermediate schools was English, Latin, mathematics, history, geography and French. The practical and scientific side of the curriculum, though encouraged by the authorities, was largely neglected by schools. Most of the headmasters adopted an ethos for the schools resembling English grammar schools and public schools including uniforms, sport on Saturdays, prefects and school clubs.^[17] A degree of overlap developed between the age groups catered for by these schools and elementary schools.^[21] The House of Commons was told in 1904 that 91 of 95 intermediate schools were classified as good or excellent. The Central Welsh Board was established in 1896 to inspect the Intermediate schools but they were also visited by inspectors from other government bodies.^[11] Commenting on the legacy of the intermediate schools historians Gareth Elwyn Jones and Gordon Wynne Roderick wrote that on the eve of World War I children in Wales were more likely to enter secondary school or university than anywhere else in Western Europe other than Scotland.^[17] Meanwhile the period saw a growth in evening classes teaching vocational subjects. While their progress had previously been slow and varied by the end of the 19th century these classes were becoming increasingly well regarded.^[11] Though they reached a lower proportion of the population than in England, Scotland or Ireland.^[17]

Edwardian era

The payment-by-results system ended in the middle of the 1890s. A feeling had developed in the education department that the inspectorate needed to return to its original role as a supportive advisor for schools rather than punitively judging their results. Historian Russell Grigg writes that it took "time, commitment and training" for teachers to adjust to the new system but that by the 1900s there was evidence of them moving away from rote learning to a wider curriculum and more varied teaching methods including "field visits, local study, school museums and the creation of school gardens".^[11] Class sizes remained large, instruction was focused on the three r's and the cane frequently used. Elementary schools were widely understood to be mainly institutions providing a fairly low level of education to those destined for lives of manual labour. 1904 guidance for elementary schools commented that they provided "training in followership rather than leadership training, suited to the working classes".^[22] Changes in the 1900s included the end of the pupil-teacher system in which teenagers had been put to work from the age of 13 as trainee teachers and the creation of local education authorities.^[11] The passing of the 1902 Education Act which established the local education authorities was deeply opposed by the non-conformists because it restructured school financing in a way that meant ratepayers would be paying directly for the upkeep of Anglican and Roman Catholic schools. In the heightened religious atmosphere of the 1904 to 1905 Christian revival, this led to a political crisis in Wales with most local authorities refusing to apply the law. A prolonged struggle took place between the local authorities and central government which had a disruptive effect on schooling. It ultimately concluded after the election in 1906 of a government that was more popular in Wales.^[22]

Schoolchildren in Bleddfa photographed by Percy Benzie Abury (1911)

In 1907 the Welsh department was established within the Board of Education. The department was headed by Owen Edwards a figure who was supportive of introducing a curriculum more specific to Wales and had some success in implementing it. His main impact was on Welsh language teaching which is discussed elsewhere in this article. He also pushed for more teaching of Welsh history, geography and culture but Ann Keane gives little evidence of how much impact that had.^[23] The 1902 Act allowed local authorities to create municipal secondary schools outside the network of intermediate schools created after the 1889 Act. This was encouraged by the Welsh department as a way to undermine the Central Welsh Board.^[22] From the point of view of the local authorities it was a simpler way of establishing secondary schools than the system established by the 1889 act.^[17] Edwards disliked the secondary schools' focus on rote learning and exams though he was ultimately fighting against the grain of public opinion at the time. Meanwhile, between 1906 and 1910, the government passed various legislation intended to improve the welfare of schoolchildren at a time when disease was a serious threat to children. Free school milk was offered, local authorities were given the option to provide free school meals, a medical department was set up in the board of education and local authorities were required to appoint school medical officers as well as conduct physical examinations of pupils.^[22] Maude Morgan Thomas, a Welsh immigrant to the United States, wrote a biography intended for American children about her early years in Pontypool during the Edwardian period. In the chapter on her schooling she describes lessons in art, Welsh mediaeval history, needlework (for girls), domestic science (for older girls), optional piano lessons and frequent corporal punishment. She comments on her experience:

School days in Wales were rather more uncomfortable than happy for me. There were always so many rattan canes lashing about, so much writing and arithmetic. Copy books had to be neatly filled with carefully written words, evenly spaced and shaded properly on each down stroke. One blot or one imperfect letter would bring the rattan cane stinging down on laboring knuckles... As I look back now, kindergarten^{[note 6]} days were very pleasant. Welsh children usually began school at a very early age, many of them as young as three years. So school days were play days for the beginners.^[24]

World War 1 and interwar years

World War 1 had a fairly limited immediate impact on education in Wales. Some school buildings were requisitioned for military use and a shortage of male teachers had a particular effect on secondary schools. A suspension of new school buildings led to an increase in class sizes especially in secondary schools where enrolment increased sharply in the later war years. The inspectorate believed that pupils had been negatively unsettled by the war but this was not reflected in exam results.^[22] The school inspectorate also experienced an erosion of its staff.^[22] The war coincided with the introduction of compulsory education for disabled children. The conflict did have a significant effect on the future of education as it led to discussion of the effect of rival powers' education systems on their war efforts. In 1917 the Lewis Report by the Board of Education was released resulting in the 1918 Education Act being passed. The act increased the minimum school leaving age to fourteen. Other provisions included some financial changes which benefited the education system and the creation of central schools. These schools were a new form of quasi-secondary school similar to the higher-grade schools of the late 19th century. Parents were somewhat sceptical of them, seeing them as a poor substitute for other forms of education after elementary school. The act also included various other proposals for reforming the education system which were not implemented.^[22]

Boys of Newtown Church School after a rummage sale photographed by Geoff Charles (1939)

Around the time of WWI the subjects listed on inspection reports as being taught at elementary schools included "English, Arithmetic, history and geography, music and drawing". Practical subjects might also be included such as "needlework, laundry, handicraft, hygiene and school gardens".^[23] While academic orthodoxy around teaching methods, especially for younger children, was changing by the interwar period, this had little practical effect on schools. The primary focus of education in Wales remained on pupils memorising information. Teaching practises did gradually improve during the first half of the 20th century and the curriculum became broader in subjects such as history, geography and nature studies, especially in larger elementary schools. Oracy lessons became more common and school trips were encouraged. Government funding cuts during the Great Depression were difficult for elementary schools. Outside of school, while participation was starting to decline by the interwar period, chapels remained a significant source of informal religious and cultural education in both English and Welsh.^[22]

Demand for secondary education continued to increase in the post-World War I period and opportunities grew due to a fall in birth rates even as the financial situation got worse. By 1931 19% of elementary school pupils in Wales transitioned to secondary school at the age of about 11-years-old, a significantly higher proportion than in England, while the rest remained at elementary school until the age of fourteen. However high rates of early dropout from secondary school, which had already been a problem, continued in the difficult economic environment of the 1920s and especially 1930s. Even though increasing numbers of secondary school places were now free, the additional costs of keeping a child in school as well as the loss of their potential wages meant that there was a strong temptation to leave at the age of fourteen. Very long travel times added to the appeal of this option. For instance, in 1922, it was reported that pupils in Barmouth County School's journey back and forth to school began at 5 am and ended at 7 pm. Various proposals were made throughout the interwar period for all children to transition from elementary school to secondary school at the age of 11- or 12-years-old. The idea of possibly raising the school leaving age was also suggested. However none of these plans came to fruition, so the school system of 1939 was very similar in structure to its counterpart at the start of the 20th century.^[22]

World War II and preparation for reform

Child evacuees receiving a nature study lesson outdoors in Caersws photographed by Geoff Charles (1939)

Child evacuees from London receive their school lessons in a village hall in Ffarmers, Carmarthenshire (1940)

Children at an infants school in Butetown, Cardiff using models to learn about road safety photographed by Richard Stone (1943)

During World War II around 200,000 children were moved from London, Liverpool and the West Midlands of England to Wales as part of the evacuation scheme. This led to serious overcrowding in the education system. A situation heightened by a suspension of new school buildings and a significant shortage of staff. Local authorities reached solutions such as using village halls as schools and rotating part-time classes. Within Wales the areas badly affected by air raids were Cardiff and Swansea leading to the loss of various school buildings. At schools free milk was provided and at a time of food shortages the number of children using free school meals increased significantly.^[25] School inspection reports, which continued partially during the war years, give mixed evidence of how well schools were coping with the pressures placed on them. For instance a report on Reynoldston school commented that:

The average attendance has decreased from 81.8[%] in 1927–28 to 39.8[%] in 1941–42 … The average attendance of the visiting [evacuee] pupils in 1941–42 was 41.3[%]: they come mainly from the areas of the L.C.C.^{[note 7]}, Ealing and Swansea Education Authorities.^[26]

Education formed part of the general desire for a fresh start after the war and social reform. In June 1941 the Board of Education asked educational organisations for their proposals on establishing a new education system in England and Wales. In Wales the Federation of Education Committees in particular made detailed proposals which fairly closely resembled the end result. In July 1943 the government published a reform proposal called Education Reconstruction. This document proposed a system of universal, compulsory education from age five to eighteen. The term elementary school would be abolished and children would instead attend primary school up to the age of 11. They would then be sent to one of multiple types of secondary schools of equal status. The school leaving age would be increased to fifteen immediately and sixteen as soon as practical. Teenagers aged 15 to 18 who did not stay at school would be required to attend a young person's college part-time. Meanwhile Cyril Norwood wrote a report endorsing a variety of school types and argued that every child was naturally suited to one of three types of schools: grammar, modern or technical. The government proposals led to the 1944 Education Act.^[25]

Legacy of the 1944 Act

Schoolgirl at Llanbedr Secondary Modern School studying textiles photographed by Geoff Charles (1954)

Children at play in a school playground in Amman Valley photographed by Geoff Charles (1949)

Girls in traditional Welsh dress for St David's Day at Machynlleth Junior School photographed by Geoff Charles (1952)

The 1944 Education Act largely put the 1943 proposal into law but not all of it was implemented. For instance, while the school leaving age was increased to 15 in 1947, the increase to 16 was indefinitely delayed. The introduction of compulsory part-time education up to the age of 18 also did not happen as local authorities struggled to provide sufficient colleges. The 1944 Act did not say what variety of school types should be created but most local authorities chose the types recommended by Norwood. However very few of the technical schools were opened. They faced various difficulties which were common to both England and Wales. Additionally in Wales, where academic secondary education had been seen as an ideal since the 19th century, there was a particular lack of respect for vocational education. Equal status between different school types was also not established with secondary modern's seen as a poor alternative to grammar's and the latter group receiving more than twice as much money per child.^[25]

The grammar schools followed in the tradition of the pre-war secondary schools. For instance elaborate uniforms, strict discipline, a competitive spirit and a distinctive school brand. While they often claimed to be indifferent to exam results, in reality, that was usually their main focus. Meanwhile the secondary modern schools' reputation was primarily linked to the old elementary schools. Their curriculum focused on English, mathematics and practical skills, especially for lower-ability pupils. Boys' and girls' experiences varied in all kinds of secondary schools. The traditional view of a woman's primary role in life being as a wife and mother had a particular influence on secondary modern's. The central government was resistant to any attempt by local authorities to introduce any system that might undermine grammar schools. In rural areas a degree of integration often had to take place between the different school types for practical reasons. Bilateral schools which provided a segregated system within a single school were sometimes used as a compromise. Local authorities were generally resistant to the creation of state schools intended to cater to particular religious groups and relatively few were established in Wales.^[25]

Under the 1944 Act local authorities were supposed to organise nursery schools for the early education of children under the age of five. However, with the postwar baby boom to accommodate, the priority of local authorities was catering for children of school age. There were only about 40 nursery schools in Wales by 1964 and fewer children in nursery classes in larger schools than there had been in 1939. Legally primary education began at the latest on a child's fifth birthday. They might attend separate infant and junior schools, departments or a combined primary school. Infant schools were almost always mixed-sex with very few exceptions. In the first year of infants (reception class) children did largely the same activities as nursery children while also being introduced to letters, numbers and certain other skills. Teaching methods with older children in the infants varied with some teachers using explicit instruction and others taking a more informal approach.^[25]

At age 7 children moved into juniors. Junior schools were usually mixed sex but there were some of single sex. Here a disciplined form of teaching from the front of the class was the norm in English and mathematics. While in other subjects such as "history, geography, art and nature study" a more varied approach might be used. Most junior schools organised children into classes based on ability. The Hadow report of 1931 which was an influence on junior schools in the postwar years argued that the main priority of education at this age should be children's health and happiness. That goal was undermined by the need to get as many children as possible to pass the 11-plus. There was little teaching of art, physical education and nature studies at many junior schools during this period.^[25] Primary school inspection reports often criticised insufficient focus on Welsh topics in lessons.^[26]

Later 20th-century development

With the new economic prosperity starting in the late 1950s much more money began to be spent on education. There was a general sense of optimism about education and a feeling that it could induce progress. By 1965 there were 102,000 students in adult education in Wales and industry was increasingly valuing technical education. The growth of broadcasting provided new sources of informal education and by the 1960s a significant chunk of this was focused on specifically Welsh matters. However there continued to be shortages of teachers and the number of pupils staying at school after the minimum leaving age increased but remained relatively low. Concern about a breakdown in traditional structures of authority and an increase in teenage rebellion along with juvenile delinquency focused on the group of young people in their mid-teens who were not in formal education.^[25] Further education grew rapidly in the 1970s as youth unemployment increased, apprenticeships declined and more older adults who had struggled at school attempted to improve their education levels later in life. By 1979 there were about 80,000 students in further education in Wales as well as an additional 127,411 in adult education centres.^[27] However various government schemes intended to replace the declining apprenticeship system had limited success.^[28]

Opinion began to turn against the segregated system of secondary schools. This was due to the lack of technical schools, the privileged status given to grammar school pupils over others and research suggesting that the 11-plus examination harmed children. After a change in government in 1964 it became the central government's policy to push local authorities towards switching to comprehensive schools.^[25] Over the following years there was a steady shift in that direction and by 1980 all local authorities in Wales had moved to that system. In Wales the new system was fairly consistent in being made up of large comprehensive schools for pupils aged 11- to 18-years-old. In the 1977/78 academic year 14% of comprehensive schools in Wales had more than 1,500 pupils. In general Welsh local authorities were more willing to implement the new system than their English counterparts. However there was a degree of reluctance towards both the principle of losing grammar schools and to another major upheaval in secondary education not long after the immediate postwar reforms. In 1972 the school leaving age was increased to 16. In the late 1960s attempts were made to reform the curriculum in preparation for this change which themselves became politically controversial.^[27] Another issue was that pupils' results at 16 and above were consistently poorer than in England. In 1980 about 1 in 4 young people in Wales left school without any qualifications.^[29]

Christmas party at Barmouth Primary School photographed by Geoff Charles (1960)

Primary schools in the 1960s were influenced by the trend away from the 11-plus examination.^[27] The Hadow report had argued that the curriculum for this age group should "be thought of in terms of activity and experience rather than of knowledge to be acquired and facts to be stored". In the 1960s this idea began to be pushed by educators of schoolteachers and inspectors. However HMI reports suggest this approach was fairly uncommon in Wales.^[25] In 1968 the Gittins Report (essentially a Welsh version of the Plowden Report, though the latter also had some influence in Wales) into pre-secondary education was published. It argued that nursery education should be expanded with a focus on localities where children were in the most need of early years education. The aim being that universal part-time nursery would be established for preschool children from the age of three and full-time nursery for children in the most need. At primary school it recommended the use of a wider range of teaching methods with the focus of education being on the development of skills, understanding and the enhancement of child development. The Plowden Report had similar ideas and a new ethos developed in primary education. This new situation became deeply politically controversial and by the end of the 1970s the central government had reasserted a greater degree of control over primary schools.^[27] However while some new methods were being experimented with the way in which primary schools in Wales taught had not changed dramatically overall according to Roy James.^[29] The Aberfan Disaster destroyed a village junior school in 1966 killing many children.^[30]

In 1970 responsibility for primary and secondary education in Wales was transferred to the Welsh Office, a department of the UK government. Although historians Gareth Elwyn Jones and Gordon Wynne Roderick say this had a limited effect on the overall direction of the government concerning education in Wales.^[27] The government of the 1980s made various changes to the administration of and requirements placed on schools. Throughout the decade school governors (essentially ceremonial figures since the 1944 act) gained much more power at the expense of the local education authorities. The governors were also given control over the school's financial affairs, deciding how to spend the grant received from local authorities. According to historians Gareth Elwyn Jones and Gordon Wynne Roderick this essentially turned schools into competing businesses aiming to attract more pupils to get more money, breaking down the spirit of cooperation that had often existed between them historically. The 1988 Education Reform Act established a national curriculum in England and Wales. The idea that every child should receive the same set of subjects taught to the same level was new in the history of state-funded education and certainly unlike the way the system had been run since World War II.^[28] Previously schools, and to a large extent individual teachers, had a great deal of autonomy over what they taught leading to inconsistent standards.^[29] The Welsh curriculum was developed in close proximity to the English. The overall structure of the curriculum was the same in Wales as in England but there were some significantly different instructions about certain subjects in Wales. The Curriculum Cymraeg was introduced in the 1990s to add an emphasis on Wales-related topics into the curriculum.^[28] This was also a fairly novel concept. Aside from teaching of the Welsh language, official guidance of this nature had previously been relatively limited.^[27] However a report produced by Estyn in 2001 suggested that the success of this endeavour had been quite limited and varied significantly between subjects, schools and regions.^[31]

Language in early forms of education

In reflection of their close relationship with the Roman Catholic Church the schools of the mediaeval period were conducted in Latin. By the 15th century knowledge of English and Latin was one of various forms of education which was seen as increasingly valuable by the Welsh social elite. In the 16th century the laws that made Wales part of the Kingdom of England also established that English was to be the official language of administration and justice, even though the vast majority of the Welsh population of a lower rank than Gentlemen were solely Welsh speaking. This reinforced the importance of learning English for the Welsh gentry. The grammar schools of the early modern period taught in English or Latin with boys expected to have learnt sufficient English before starting, though there were complaints at the time that some had not.^[2] The known elementary-level schools of the 16th and 17th centuries had endowments which specified the use of English. They were mainly located in eastern areas of Wales where English was widely used.^[3] The schools established by Cromwell's government taught a grammar school-level education in Latin and a more basic level in English.^[2] The schools established by Thomas Gouge were conducted in English.^[8]

Historian T.B. Stephens observes that in 18th-century charity schools "the vernacular [local language] was used as a medium of instruction more readily [in Wales] than in Gaelic-speaking parts of Scotland".^[13] The typical medium of instruction in the SPCK schools was English but speaking Welsh in the schools was not restricted and over 12 schools in North Wales were conducted in Welsh. The circulatory schools used Welsh as their medium of instruction and aimed to teach the ability to read in Welsh only. This was criticised by some of their patrons but the practice was defended by Griffith Jones. He argued that previous efforts at mass education had gained limited traction because they had been conducted in English at a time when Welsh was the sole language of a large majority of the Welsh peasantry.^[8] Endowments for 18th century elementary schools sometimes specified Welsh or English as the language to be used but according to historian Malcolm Seaborne this cannot always be taken literally.^[7] The Sunday schools established in Wales in the late 18th century were conducted in Welsh. The day schools created by the voluntary societies in the early 19th century were usually conducted in English.^[8]

Oppression of the Welsh language

In the 1830s and 1840s the Welsh language became increasingly associated in the eyes of the government with the social unrest taking place in Wales. In the early 1840s the government agreed to "an inquiry into the state of education, especially into the means afforded the labouring classes of acquiring a knowledge of the English language".^[18] The report, released in 1847, caused great offence in Wales due to derogatory comments it made about the morality of the Welsh people and the Welsh language.^[11][18] Though it complimented the Welsh population's desire for education, their willingness to make sacrifices to acquire it as well as their knowledge of religion and mathematics.^[18] Historian Gregg Russell describes its substance aside from the derogatory comments as "a detailed picture of educational poverty".^[11] It depicts the Welsh language as a negative influence limiting the potential of the Welsh population. The report argued that much of the Welsh-speaking public was keen to learn English and that bilingualism in schools was the best way to teach it. Historians Gareth Elwyn Jones and Gordon Wynne Roderick argue that its attitude to the Welsh language was a reflection of the contemporary belief among the English middle classes that everyone in the Empire needed to learn standard English rather than a deliberate expression of anti-Welsh sentiment. The regional dialects of the English working classes were also criticised in other educational reports. They also say that the educational aspects of the report's criticism were broadly reasonable. At the time nonconformists generally interpreted the report as an English and Anglican attack on the Welsh while some Anglican churchmen criticised its tone.^[18]

Example of a Welsh Not displayed at St Fagans Museum

The attitude that the Welsh Language impeded education would continue through most of the remainder of the 19th century. Welsh-speaking parents were often also keen for their children to learn English to allow them more opportunities in life. The language of instruction at day schools was almost always English. Later, when funding was based on academic performance, results in Welsh were excluded from the revised code of 1862 so held no financial benefit for schools. One of the drawbacks of this system was that many teachers were themselves Welsh speakers with an inadequate knowledge of English. Some critics suggested using Welsh as a means of teaching English, though most school inspectors and other influential figures were against the idea. Teaching in Welsh was widely available in Sunday Schools, some people who were sympathetic to the language suggested that chapels were the institutions best placed to preserve it.^[18][17] One of the more iconic symbols of educational attitudes to the Welsh language during this period is the Welsh Not which became well-known in the popular legends of the next century.^[48] This was a wooden plaque which some teachers tied around the neck of any child caught speaking Welsh on the school premises. If another child was caught it was moved onto them and the child wearing the plaque at the end of the school day was punished. Much anecdotal evidence of this practice exists but its extent is largely unknown. There is no evidence of it taking place in board schools.^[17]

Growing acceptance of the Welsh language

In reflection of an intensified sense of Welsh identity, attitudes among the authorities relating to the use of Welsh in schools began to soften towards the end of the 19th century. Although, due to reasons largely unrelated to education, Wales was increasingly becoming a predominantly English-speaking society. Teaching of Welsh in elementary schools became a possibility in the 1880s.^[17] Welsh became a grant-earning subject under the payment-by-results scheme during the last few years of its existence and a small fund was established to allow elementary schools to teach the subject in the 1890s.^[11] Some school boards did try to introduce the subject but it was entirely optional, any lessons used English as the medium of instruction and it was mainly taught as an aid for teaching English.^[17][11] In 1899 to 1900 only 0.8 percent of pupils were taught Welsh as a subject.^[11] From 1907 to 1920 educationalist Owen Edwards was in charge of the newly created Welsh Department of the Board of Education. He was in favour of increased use of Welsh in schools, primarily in predominantly Welsh-speaking areas. Since the end of payment by results Edwards had little power to make schools do anything but there was a gradual, patchy increase in the use of Welsh in the years after his appointment.^[23]

The 1927 government report Welsh in Education and Life found that Welsh was, in Welsh-speaking areas, the main language of instruction in infant schools and was often taught as a subject up to the age of 11-years-old. It was sometimes also taught as a second language in elementary schools in English-speaking areas. Meanwhile the report also noted that the number of intermediate schools offering Welsh as a subject increased from 31 out of 79 in 1897 to 96 out of 116 in 1925. Around 40% of pupils in intermediate schools took exams in Welsh in comparison to 67% in French and Welsh would not have been a language of instruction. French was assessed as a second language while Welsh was assessed as a first language which meant that the former was an easier option for many students.^[23]

Even with some increase in the use of Welsh at schools, censuses suggested that Welsh speakers had become a minority in Wales at the start of the 20th century and continued to shrink as a proportion of the population.^[23] There was little prospect of a significant increase in the status of the Welsh language in the education system during the interwar period. The priority of Welsh-speaking parents was ensuring their children gained fluency in English to give them the best chance of gaining employment in a worsening economy. The Urdd Gobaith Cymru (Welsh League of Youth) was established in 1922 to develop an affection for the Welsh language and aspects of Welsh culture in young people. After five years the organisation had 5,000 members.^[22] In 1971 a Welsh individual living in Leicester wrote in a letter to a local newspaper that they could remember being caned for speaking Welsh at school playtime as a child in around 1940.^[49]

Early Welsh-medium schools

Schoolchildren at the Urdd National Eisteddfod. An event hosted by the Urdd Gobaith Cymru, a youth organisation intended to promote the Welsh language, photographed by Geoff Charles (1961)

Ysgol Glan Clwyd, the first secondary school to be officially designated as using Welsh as a language of instruction

In 1939 the first Welsh-medium primary school was established independently of the state by the Urdd in Aberystwyth.^[50] The 1944 Education Act made it possible for Welsh-medium schools to be funded by the state for the first time. The first state school of this type was opened in Llanelli in 1947 and there were ten such institutions within two years.^[51] The 1948 school inspection report on Ysgol Gymraeg Aberystwyth, the first formally Welsh-medium primary school, was very positive commenting that teaching included "lively and varied activities with plenty of exercise for imagination and for creative work in language, in movement and in art" which taught children "treasures of Welsh lore, song and legend" and "later... knowledge of English language, literature, song and story, and... some understanding of the ways of peoples of other lands". In 1953 the government report The Place of Welsh and English in the Schools of Wales was published. At this time there were 14 Welsh medium primary schools with just over 1,000 pupils excluding some "naturally bilingual" schools in heavily Welsh-speaking areas. The report recommended that:

"The main concern of the teacher should be to establish every child securely in the control of his mother tongue, Welsh or English. At the same time it is an essential part of the work of the schools in Wales to relate all children to the two cultures that exist here side by side... Consequently … the children of the whole of Wales … should be taught Welsh and English according to their ability to profit from such instruction."

The number of Welsh-medium primary schools in predominantly Welsh-speaking areas steadily expanded over the following years.^[26] By 1970 there were 41 Welsh medium primary schools with about 5,000 pupils.^[27] The first bilingual and Welsh medium secondary schools were founded in 1956 and 1962 respectively.^[52][53] The growth of Welsh-medium secondary education was slower than primary. Alun Morgan says this was due to a focus on gaining qualifications in English and a feeling in some areas that a heavy emphasis on Welsh matters was too narrow for secondary schools. He also suggests a "strongly Welsh-speaking and Nonconformist" school inspectorate was finding it difficult to persuade "an increasingly English-speaking and more secular Wales" to follow its advice.^[26]

Bilingual system

The 1970s and 1980s saw changes in the demographics of linguistic issues in education. On the one hand, a growing number of Welsh medium and bilingual schools were opened in predominantly English-speaking urban areas.^[29] While censuses suggested that by this time a large majority of the Welsh population were solely English speakers some non-Welsh speaking parents sent their children to Welsh medium schools.^[27] On the other hand, growing numbers of non-Welsh-speaking families moved into predominantly Welsh-speaking rural areas. The 1977 report Welsh in the primary schools of Gwynedd, Powys and Dyfed was based on a mid-1970s study of schools that were mainly using a mixture of mediums of instruction. It found that schools were having difficulties maintaining and improving the Welsh of Welsh-speaking children while lessons teaching Welsh as a second language to the non-Welsh-speaking children were largely ineffective. Other research showed that in the case of schools catering to a mixture of linguistic abilities those that used Welsh as the primary language of instruction in the infant school tended to achieve similar levels of attainment in Welsh by the end of primary school among pupils of all backgrounds. There was also evidence from abroad that language immersion was the best way to make children bilingual. Therefore the school inspectorate pushed the creation of "officially designated bilingual/Welsh-medium schools even in areas where the Welsh language was traditionally strong but now losing ground".^[29]

By 1980 there were a significant number of Welsh medium or bilingual secondary schools.^[27] In 1995 there were more than 50,000 pupils in Welsh-medium primary education.^[51] Welsh was included in the curriculum introduced after the 1988 Education Reform Act and became compulsory for pupils up to the age of 14 in 1990 and 16 in 1999.^[54] Welsh was treated as a "foundation subject" (i.e. less important but expected to be taught) in English-medium schools and a "core subject" (i.e. of equal status to English) in Welsh-medium schools.^[28][55] Censuses suggested that the proportion of Welsh speakers increased in the last decade of the 20th century but has since slightly declined.^[56] In 2016 16% of pupils attended Welsh-medium schools while 10% attended "bilingual, dual-medium [with Welsh and English speaking departments], or English with significant Welsh provision" schools.^[57] In 2015 Meri Hews, the Commissioner for the Welsh Language commented that "If you look at the [number of] young people who speak Welsh in Wales today, four out of five... [learnt] Welsh outside the home... They learn Welsh at school."^[58] However according to comments made by statistician Hywel Jones in 2023 Welsh lessons do not necessarily lead to children being able to speak Welsh:

The main reason the figures [number of Welsh speakers in some surveys] are so high is that parents incorrectly report that their children can speak Welsh based on a few lessons a week in an English-medium school... Looking at the number of children in Welsh-medium education gives us a far more accurate picture.^[59]

Before universities in Wales

In the mediaeval period, a small number of Welshmen began to attend university outside of Wales. The earliest option was the University of Bologna in modern Italy and some are known to have attended the University of Paris. The most well-known example is Gerald of Wales, a scholar who worked as a clerk in the royal court of England. The University of Oxford and the University of Cambridge were founded in the 12th and 13th centuries respectively. During the period between 1200 and 1500 about 400 Welshmen were registered as attending the University of Oxford and 40 the University of Cambridge but those figures are probably underestimates. A number also attended continental universities or trained in the Inns of Court. During his rebellion Owain Glyndwr considered the idea of creating two universities one in North and one in South Wales which, according to historians Gareth Elwyn Jones and Gordon Wynne Roderick, would have allowed him to create a governing class.^[2]

In the 16th century there was an increased interest in attending university. Historian W.P. Griffith estimated that 200 Welsh students attended the University of Oxford in the first 40 years of the century. He also estimated that 4,000 attended the University of Oxford, University of Cambridge or Inns of Court in the hundred years after 1540. This expansion in demand was partially due to the same factors as the expansion in lower levels of education. It was also influenced by universities, which were mainly institutions for the education of the clergy, increasingly becoming acceptable for other gentlemen. Poor men could gain admission by acting as servants in university colleges in exchange for the removal of fees and some financial support. A substantial number of Welsh students used this method. Welshmen remained under-represented in higher education as a proportion of the English and Welsh population. The average age of entrance was 18 with significant variances. For instance students progressing to one of these institutions from grammar school tended to be between 14- and 16-years-old.^[2]

In the mediaeval period the most common area of study was Canon and Civil law but this gradually changed in the 16th century to a Bachelor of Arts. About 50% of students graduated. For those that did graduate it typically took four years to gain a bachelor's degree and another three to become a Master of Arts. Gaining the latter would be useful for a man wishing to become a cleric. The curriculum was similar to that of medieval grammar schools. It focused heavily on Aristotle but it was also widening to include Greek and Hebrew texts. Those progressing onto a Master's degree studied a wider range of fields. The clergy students were involved in much scholarship. That was less true of the other men, but there were some examples of dedicated students. One example of a more motivated scholar is Edward Carne from Ewenny in the Vale of Glamorgan, who had a celebrated legal career and eventually became an ambassador. Jesus College at Oxford University was founded by Hugh Price from Brecon and was particularly associated with Welsh students.^[2]

Oxford and Cambridge Universities fell into decline in the 18th century with a curriculum that had evolved little since mediaeval times, little academic focus, declining numbers and fewer opportunities for poorer students. A new form of senior-level education was also established. This originated from religious oppression, beginning in the Cavalier parliament in 1662, which led to several clergy members being ejected and impoverished. Some of whom established academies for dissenters who had been prevented by the repression from going to the universities. 23 of these institutions were established across England and Wales. The academies were originally established mainly to train future dissenter ministers, but they also attracted Anglicans who saw them as being of a better standard than universities. They taught a variety of subjects over four years of study including "classics, logic, Hebrew, mathematics, natural sciences, modern languages and medicine". The most well-known example in Wales was the Presbyterian Academy in Brynllywarch which later moved to Carmarthen.^[8] These colleges evolved into the theological colleges of the 19th century which were associated with Non-conformists.^[18][8] Witnesses to the Aberdare Committee in 1880 noted that many of the colleges' pupils were from the "common people" paying "little or nothing for their support".^[18] The colleges could act as a stepping stone to higher education. With Oxford and Cambridge still maintaining a religious test until 1871, Scottish universities and affiliate college schemes run by the University of London were an option for non-conformists. Meanwhile St David's College in Lampeter was founded in 1827 to educate future Anglican clergy. It was the first degree-issuing institution in Wales.^[18][8]

Early university colleges and political higher education

In 1853 Benjamin Thomas Williams wrote a pamphlet called The Desirableness of a University of Wales which argued for the creation of a non-sectarian university. In 1854 a group of Welshmen of high status gathered to discuss the idea of a university organised on the model of the University of Ireland. In 1857 a scheme was established to create a university in Wales which quickly broke down. Afterwards there was little progress due to the need for government funding at a time when the government was focused on paying for the Crimean War.^[18] By 1867 only £5,000 had been raised. The Castle Hotel, Aberystwyth was bought that year for fundraising efforts. Hugh Owen, a retired civil servant, dedicated himself to fundraising. He quickly collected £7,000 mainly in small donations from ordinary people across Wales. By 1874 the debt on the buildings had been repaid.^[11]

Illustration of the University College of Wales next to a parish church (1868)

In 1872 the University College of Wales, Aberystwyth was opened. The students, who were mainly aged 14 to 25, were often ill-prepared for university. This was especially true of those studying science. Historians Gareth Elwyn Jones and Gordon Wynne Roderick argued that this reflected the mediocre nature of secondary education in Wales at the time. Some older men also came to study, these were frequently farmers who studied agriculture. Women were initially allowed to study music at the college. A situation which caused much annoyance among male academics and ended in 1878.^[17]

In 1880 the Aberdare Committee recommended the creation of two university colleges in North and South Wales funded by the government. This led to the creation of the University College of South Wales and Monmouthshire, Cardiff and University College in North Wales, Bangor in 1883. The original university college gained its own grant in 1886. Initially the colleges were affiliated with the University of London. In 1893 the University of Wales was established as an overarching university for the colleges with the power to issue degrees. By 1900 the colleges were teaching a wide range of subjects relating to the arts and sciences. However they remained heavily reliant on the state and had less success with developing a technological curriculum.^[17]

The colleges of the University of Wales physically expanded in the early 20th century. While two of the colleges developed courses in agriculture funded by the state, the University College of South Wales and Monmouthshire had less success developing technical subjects. Historians Gareth Elwyn Jones and Gordon Wynne Roderick wrote that this was due to scepticism towards formal education on the part of industrialists, a level of snobbishness towards vocational training among academics and a lack of financial support from the government. By 1908 there were more female students than male in Aberystwyth. The women were kept separate from the men and chaperoned. Universities were disrupted by World War I with many students volunteering. The University College of Swansea was founded in 1920 and gained a reputation for science and technology. In 1922 the Welsh National School of Medicine was founded. The University of Wales Press and Board of Celtic Studies were founded in 1922, expanding the publishing of research. While the colleges had working-class students, the economic conditions of the time prevented many of even the most academic young people from attending. In the 1938/39 academic year there were 663 students in Aberystwyth, 485 in Bangor, 970 in Cardiff, 488 in Swansea and 173 in the medical school. More than 90% had been born in Wales.^[22]

Photograph of Wern Fawr, Harlech which appeared in a 1910 design annual. The house was later adapted into the Coleg Harlech.

There were also other means of gaining access to higher education in the early 20th century connected to left-wing politics. The Workers' Educational Association set up classes intended to encourage discussion of the social problems of the time. It was fairly moderate in its outlook aiming to develop a sense of democratic citizenship in its students and arguing for a reconciliation between the interests of capital and labour. This lack of radicalism was off-putting for much of the working classes but by 1924 the association had 4,000 students in 200 classes. The Coleg Harlech was established with similar aims by Thomas Jones (see above) in 1927. Beginning in 1906 the South Wales' Miners Federation established a scholarship to Ruskin College. These students were known for their left-wing militancy contributing to the Ruskin College strike in 1909. The union then contributed to the Central Labour College which existed sporadically for the next twenty years and inculcated Marxist ideas in coal-mining areas. Its classes were initially far more popular than the Workers Educational Association. An intense rivalry developed between the two organisations in the interwar years when the Workers Educational Association gained government funding and increased its appeal to trade unionists.^[60]

Higher education since World War II

Students starting at the University College of North Wales, Bangor photographed by Geoff Charles (1958)

New students at St Mary's College, a teacher training college which later became part of Bangor University^[61] (1961)

The Welsh university colleges experienced difficulties during World War II with staff shortages, neglected repairs, falling student numbers and shared accommodation with other institutions. The postwar period saw a rapid expansion of higher education establishments especially in the study of science and technology. This was a result of the Cold War, a desire for Britain to remain a great power after the end of the empire and economic competition from abroad. In Wales the City of Cardiff Technical College became the Welsh College of Advanced Technology which itself evolved into the University of Wales Institute of Science and Technology. Meanwhile the University of Wales also experienced the rapid increase in student numbers seen across British universities. Accommodating these new students required major physical expansion especially with a trend towards students living at university. More English students went to the University of Wales and more Welsh students went to English universities. The colleges introduced new aspects to their curriculum reflecting the new situation. However the University of Wales saw less of an uptake in science than elsewhere. At the time the reasons for this were felt to include a long-running cultural hostility to technical education in Wales and an affection for the humanities. An additional factor was considered to be the fact that Welsh-speaking students were then forced to take Welsh as an additional subject and often pushed to take other languages as well.^[25]

Access to university remained very limited with only 15% of the relevant age group across England and Wales reaching the necessary level of qualification for admission in 1962 and only 4% enrolling.^[25] A 1963 report noted that the large majority of them were men and that there had been little increase in the proportion of students from working-class backgrounds. Student protests were a part of university life in the 1960s including some about specifically Welsh matters such as the Welsh language (see:Welsh Language Society). The proportion of students at the University of Wales who had been born in Wales continued to decline becoming a minority in the mid-1960s. An enquiry into the subject concluded that, at a time when young people were feeling newly liberated in various ways, travelling far away from their family homes to study appeared an attractive option to assert their autonomy and ambition. This situation led by the mid-1970s to frustration among Welsh Nationalists who felt the "Welshness" of the university was being diluted and objected to any further expansion. Ultimately expansion largely came to an end due to the economic crisis of the 1970s. Polytechnics were established in 1965 as a form of higher education run by local authorities. More of a focus began to be placed on attracting older adults into higher education, for instance, with the creation of the Open University in 1970.^[27]

The 1992 Further and Higher Education Act made the polytechnics into universities.^[62] According to historians Gareth Elwyn Jones and Gordon Wynne Roderick this Act moved universities into a similar position as schools had been moved into by the 1980s reforms. They were partially competing as businesses, partially controlled by the state. Means-tested grants were replaced with student loans and tuition fees were introduced in the 1990s. The argument given in favour of this at the time was that the state could not afford to pay for far higher numbers of young people attending university than in the past. By 1999 almost a quarter of young people aged 19 to 24 in Wales had received a university education, a figure which continued to rise in the early 2000s. There were 13 higher education institutions, eight of which were part of the University of Wales. More than half of Welsh students studied in other parts of the UK and more than half of students in Welsh universities were from outside of Wales.^[28] In the 2021 Census 31.5% of permanent residents of Wales over the age of sixteen were recorded as having university-level qualifications.^[63]

Notes