{{Short description|Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom}} {{For|the Tennessee creationist education law with the same colloquial name|Butler Act}} {{Use British English|date=August 2025}} {{Use dmy dates|date=April 2022}} {{Infobox UK legislation |short_title = Education Act 1944{{efn|Section 122(1).}} |type = Act |year = 1944 |parliament = Parliament of the United Kingdom |long_title = An Act to reform the law relating to education in England and Wales. |statute_book_chapter = 7 & 8 Geo. 6. c. 31 |introduced_commons = R. A. Butler |territorial_extent = England and Wales{{efn|Section 122(2).}} |royal_assent = 3 August 1944 |commencement = {{ubli|3 August 1944: parts I and V|1 April 1945: parts II and IV|part III}}{{efn|Section 119.}} |repeal_date = 1 November 1996 |amends = {{ubli|Elementary Education Act 1870|Education Act 1921}} |replaces = {{ubli|Board of Education Act 1899|Education Act 1921|Education (Institution Children) Act 1923|Education (Local Authorities) Act 1931|Education (Necessity of Schools) Act 1933|Education Act 1936|Education (Deaf Children) Act 1937|Senior Public Elementary Schools (Liverpool) Act 1939|Education (Emergency) Act 1939}} |amendments = {{ubli|Education (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 1948|Criminal Justice Act 1948|Mental Health Act 1959|Charities Act 1960|Education Act 1976|Education Act 1980|Education Reform Act 1988}} |related_legislation = |repealing_legislation = Education Act 1996 |status = Repealed |original_text = https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/Geo6/7-8/31/contents/enacted |revised_text = https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/Geo6/7-8/31/contents | use_new_UK-LEG = no }} {{Infobox UK legislation | short_title = Education Act (Northern Ireland) 1947 | type = Act | parliament = Parliament of Northern Ireland | long_title = An Act to reform the law relating to education in Northern Ireland and for purposes connected with the said matter. | year = 1947 | citation = 1947 c. 3 (N.I.) | introduced_commons = | introduced_lords = | territorial_extent = | royal_assent = 27 March 1947 | commencement = | expiry_date = | repeal_date = | amends = | replaces = | amendments = | repealing_legislation = {{ubli|Education and Libraries (Northern Ireland) Order 1972}} | related_legislation = | status = repealed | legislation_history = | theyworkforyou = | millbankhansard = | original_text = | revised_text = | use_new_UK-LEG = | UK-LEG_title = Education Act (Northern Ireland) 1947 | collapsed = yes }}
The '''Education Act 1944''' (7 & 8 Geo. 6. c. 31) made major changes in the provision and governance of secondary schools in England and Wales. It is also known as the '''Butler Act''' after the President of the Board of Education, R. A. Butler. Historians consider it a "triumph for progressive reform," and it became a core element of the post-war consensus supported by all major parties.<ref>{{cite journal |first=Kevin |last=Jeffereys |title=R. A. Butler, the Board of Education and the 1944 Education Act |journal=History |year=1984 |volume=69 |issue=227 |pages=415–431|doi=10.1111/j.1468-229X.1984.tb01429.x }}</ref> The Act was repealed in steps with the last parts repealed in 1996.<ref>{{cite book |author=Peter Gordon and Denis Lawton |title=Dictionary of British Education |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=rNGPAgAAQBAJ&pg=PA75 |year=2004 |publisher=Routledge |pages=74–76|isbn=9781135783112}}</ref>
==Background== The basis of the Education Act 1944 was a memorandum entitled ''Education After the War'' (commonly referred to as the "Green Book") which was compiled by Board of Education officials and distributed to selected recipients in June 1941.<ref name="EATW">{{cite web |url=http://www.educationengland.org.uk/documents/greenbook1941/greenbook.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170714022644/http://educationengland.org.uk/documents/greenbook1941/greenbook.html |url-status=dead |archive-date=14 July 2017 |title=Education After the War ('The Green Book') (1941) |publisher=Education in England |access-date=27 March 2019}}</ref> The President of the Board of Education at that time was Butler's predecessor, Herwald Ramsbotham; Butler succeeded him on 20 July 1941. The Green Book formed the basis of the 1943 White Paper, ''Educational Reconstruction'' which was itself used to formulate the 1944 act.<ref name="EATW"/> The purpose of the act was to address the country's educational needs amid demands for social reform that had been an issue before the Second World War began. The act incorporated proposals developed by leading specialists in the 1920s and 1930s such as R. H. Tawney and William Henry Hadow.<ref>{{cite book |url=https://muse.jhu.edu/book/40494 |first=Brian |last=Simon |title=The Politics of Educational Reform 1920–1940 |date=1974 |publisher=Lawrence & Wishart |isbn=9781910448359 |access-date=27 March 2019}}</ref> The text of the act was drafted by Board of Education officials including Griffiths G. Williams, William Cleary, H. B. Wallis, S. H. Wood, Robert S. Wood, and Maurice Holmes.<ref>{{cite journal |first=Ron G. |last=Wallace |title=The Origins and Authorship of the 1944 Education Act |journal=History of Education |year=1981 |volume=10 |issue=4 |pages=283–290 |publisher=Taylor and Francis Ltd|doi=10.1080/0046760810100405 }}</ref>
There was a desire to keep the churches involved in education but they could not afford to modernise without government help. By negotiation with the Archbishop of Canterbury, William Temple (1881–1944), and other religious leaders, a majority of the Anglican church schools became voluntary controlled and were effectively absorbed into the state system in return for funding. The act also encouraged non-sectarian religious teaching in secular schools. A third of the Anglican church schools became voluntary aided which entitled them to enhanced state subsidies whilst retaining autonomy over admissions, curriculum and teacher appointments; Roman Catholic schools also chose this option.<ref>{{cite journal |first=S. J. D. |last=Green |title=The 1944 Education Act: A Church-State Perspective |journal=Parliamentary History |date=2000 |volume=19 |number=1 |pages=148–164 |publisher=The Parliamentary History Yearbook Trust|doi=10.1111/j.1750-0206.2000.tb00450.x }}</ref>
The legislation was enacted in 1944, but its changes were designed to take effect after the war, thus allowing for additional pressure groups to have their influence.<ref>{{cite journal |first=Peter |last=Gosden |title=Putting the Act together |journal=History of Education |year=1995 |volume=24 |issue=3 |pages=195–207 |publisher=Taylor and Francis Ltd|doi=10.1080/0046760950240301 }}</ref><ref>{{cite book |first=Gary |last=McCulloch |title=Educational reconstruction: the 1944 Education Act and the twenty-first century |publisher=Routledge |date=2013 |pages=?}}</ref> Paul Addison argues that in the end, the act was widely praised by Conservatives because it honoured religion and social hierarchy, by Labour because it opened new opportunities for working class children, and by the general public because it ended the fees they had to pay for secondary education. State primary education had been free since the Education Act 1891; even after 1944 certain older grammar schools—the direct grant grammar schools—continued to charge fees but also admitted state pupils on scholarships.<ref>{{cite book |first=Paul |last=Addison |title=The Road to 1945: British politics and the Second World War |year=1975 |publisher=Penguin |pages=237–238}}</ref>
==New policies== Butler designed the act as an expression of "One Nation Conservatism" in the tradition attributed to Disraeli, which called for paternalism by the upper class towards the working class.<ref>Brian Simon, "The 1944 Education Act: A Conservative Measure?," ''History of Education.'' (1986) 15#1 pp 31–43</ref> Butler later wrote in his 1971 memoirs that the 1944 act, like those of 1870, 1902 and 1918, did not “sweep the board clean” but rather “established a financial framework” within which local authorities could conduct such policies as were appropriate for their region.<ref>Butler 1971, p123</ref>
The name “elementary school” was abolished as implying that the poorer children who tended to attend such schools would receive an inferior education.<ref>Butler 1971, p123</ref> The act ended the traditional all-age (5–14) elementary sector, enforcing the division between primary (5–11 years old) and secondary (11–15 years old) education that many local authorities had already introduced. It abolished fees on parents for state secondary schools. It brought a more equitable funding system to localities and to different school sectors. The act renamed the Board of Education as the Ministry of Education, giving it greater powers and a bigger budget. While defining the school leaving age as 15, it granted the government the power to raise the age to 16 "as soon as the Minister is satisfied that it has become practicable",<ref>Education Act 1944, section 35</ref> though the change was not implemented until 1973. It also brought in a new system for setting teacher salaries.<ref name=":0">{{Cite book |last=Barber |first=Michael |title=The making of the 1944 education act |date=1994 |publisher=Cassell |isbn=978-0-304-32661-7 |edition=1st publ |series=Cassell education series |location=London}}</ref>
One of the results of the act was to increase the openness of secondary schools to girls and the working class, educating and mobilising them. Another result was that the percentage of children attending higher education tripled from 1% to 3%.<ref name=":0" />
The act provided both for nursery schools and Further Education programmes through community colleges, offering education for both children and adults, a measure that was only followed through by a few LEAs such as the Cambridgeshire Village Colleges, Leicestershire Community Colleges and Coventry, Derbyshire and Nottinghamshire community schools.<ref name=":0" />
Anglican schools were continued, but brought under increased state funding and control. Every state-funded school was required to begin the day with a nondenominational religious prayer.<ref>Secularists and rationalists opposed this and other provisions. See for example Brown (n.d.)</ref> This clause was amended by the Education Reform Act 1988, which specified that the act of worship should be of a 'broadly Christian nature' unless such a message was deemed to be inappropriate for a particular school or group of children. The amendment also specified that the act of worship could now take place in classes, rather than the previous system of conducting worship in assemblies.<ref name=":0" />
The act was supported by HORSA (Hutting Operation for the Raising of the School-Leaving Age) a building programme to provide 'hut'-style accommodation to meet the additional educational demand.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/films/1945to1951/filmpage_cjsd.htm |title=Charley Junior's School Days |publisher=Nationalarchives.gov.uk |access-date=2016-08-08}}</ref>
=={{anchor|free school milk}} School meals and milk== thumb|Five children drink their morning milk in a classroom in 1942. The Education Act 1944 made it a duty of local education authorities to provide school meals and milk. The authority could remit the charge for the meal in cases of hardship.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Hendrick|first1=Harry|title=Child Welfare: England 1872-1989|date=4 Oct 2003|publisher=Taylor & Francis|isbn=9780203401965|page=185}}</ref> The Provision of Free Milk Regulations 1946 (SR&O 1946/1293), made under section 49 of the 1944 act, provided free school milk to all children under 18 in maintained schools from August 1946.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://wellcomelibrary.org/moh/report/b19876221/95#?c=0&m=0&s=0&cv=95|title=Borough of Ilford Health Report for the year 1956|last=Gordon|first=I.|year=1957|page=90|access-date=14 April 2021}}</ref>
{{Infobox UK legislation | short_title = Education (Milk) Act 1971{{efn|Section 4(1).}} | type = Act | parliament = Parliament of the United Kingdom | long_title = An Act to restrict the duty of education authorities to provide milk for pupils at educational establishments maintained by them or under their management and make further provision with respect to their power to do so; to restrict their power to secure provision of milk for pupils at other educational establishments; and for purposes connected therewith. | year = 1971 | citation = 1971 c. 74 | territorial_extent = {{ubli|England and Wales|Scotland}}{{efn|Section 4(5).}} | royal_assent = 5 August 1971 | commencement = {{ubli|5 August 1971 (except section 2){{efn|The Acts of Parliament (Commencement) Act 1793}}|1 August 1971 (section 2){{efn|Section 2(6)}}}} | repeal_date = 14 April 1980{{efn|The Education Act 1980 (Commencement No. 1) Order 1980 (SI 1980/489).}} | amends = {{ubli|Education (Scotland) Act 1962|Public Expenditure and Receipts Act 1968|Education (Handicapped Children) Act 1970}} | replaces = Education (School Milk) Act 1970 | amendments = | repealing_legislation = Education Act 1980 | related_legislation = | status = Repealed | original_text = https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1971/74/contents/enacted | use_new_UK-LEG = no | collapsed = yes }} In 1968 Edward Short, the Labour Secretary of State for Education and Science, withdrew free milk from secondary schools for children over eleven. His successor, Conservative Margaret Thatcher withdrew free school milk from children over seven in the '''{{visible anchor|Education (Milk) Act 1971}}''' (c. 74), earning her the nickname "Thatcher, the Milk Snatcher".<ref>{{cite web|last=Smith |first=Rebecca |url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/politics/7932963/How-Margaret-Thatcher-became-known-as-Milk-Snatcher.html |title=How Margaret Thatcher became known as 'Milk Snatcher' |publisher=Telegraph |date=2010-08-08 |access-date=2016-08-08}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|title=Free nursery milk to stay, but costs set to be cut. 18 June 2012|work=BBC News |date=18 June 2012 |url=https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-politics-18483742|access-date=25 May 2016}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|last1=Williams|first1=Shirley|title=Shirley Williams: How Margaret Thatcher changed Britain|url=https://www.independent.co.uk/voices/comment/shirley-williams-how-margaret-thatcher-changed-britain-8564673.html|website=The Independent|access-date=16 February 2017|date=8 April 2013|quote=She was a fall guy for the Treasury’s expenditure cuts, for it was Anthony Barber [the then Chancellor of the Exchequer], not Margaret Thatcher, who abolished free milk for school children; yet it was Margaret Thatcher who took the blame for it and was nicknamed Thatcher the Milk-Snatcher.}}</ref> In the April 1978 budget, the Labour Government was able to use an EEC subsidy on milk to restore free school milk to children aged between 7 and 11.<ref>{{cite web | url=https://api.parliament.uk/historic-hansard/commons/1978/apr/11/public-expenditure#S5CV0947P0_19780411_HOC_242 | title=Public Expenditure | work=Hansard | date=11 April 1978 | publisher=UK Parliament | quote=We have also decided to take advantage of the Common Market subsidy for school milk by enabling local education authorities to provide free milk for 7-to-11-year-olds.}}</ref>
==See also==
* United Kingdom home front during World War II * Political career of Rab Butler (1941–1951) for detailed narrative, mainly of Butler's negotiations with Church leaders
==Notes== {{notelist}}
==References== {{reflist}}
== Further reading == {{Further reading cleanup|date=August 2022}} {{Refbegin|30em}} * Aldrich, Richard, Dennis Dean, and Peter Gordon. ''Education and policy in England in the twentieth century.'' (1991). * Batteson, C. H. "The 1944 Education Act reconsidered." ''Educational Review'' 51.1 (1999): 5-15. DOI:10.1080/00131919997632 * {{cite book|last = Butler|first = Rab| year = 1971| title = The Art of the Possible| location = London| publisher = Hamish Hamilton| isbn = 978-0241020074}}, his autobiography * Dunford, John, Paul Sharp, ''The Education System in England and Wales'', London: Longman, 1990, 17–24. * Gosden, Peter. "Putting the Act together." ''History of Education'' 24#3 (1995): 195-207. [http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/0046760950240301?journalCode=thed20 online] * Goldin, Claudia, "The Human Capital Century and American Leadership: Virtues of the Past," ''The Journal of Economic History'', 2001, Volume 61, Number 2. * Green, S. J. D. "The 1944 Education Act: A Church‐State Perspective." ''Parliamentary History'' 19#1 (2000): 148-164. * Griggs, Clive. ''The TUC and Education Reform, 1926-1970'' (Routledge, 2013). * Hillman, Nicholas. "Public schools and the Fleming report of 1944: shunting the first-class carriage on to an immense siding?." ''History of Education'' 41#2 (2012): 235-255. * Howard, Anthony. ''RAB: The Life of R.A. Butler'' (2013) ch 10. (originally published 1987) * Jago, Michael. '' Rab Butler: The Best Prime Minister We Never Had?'' (2015) ch 9. * Jeffereys, Kevin. "R. A. Butler, the Board of Education and the 1944 Education Act," ''History'' (1984) 69#227 pp 415–431. * Ku, Hsiao-Yuh. "Fighting for social democracy: RH Tawney and educational reconstruction in the Second World War." ''Paedagogica Historica'' 52#3 (2016): 266-285. * Ku, Hsiao-Yuh. "Education for liberal democracy: Fred Clarke and the 1944 Education Act." ''History of Education'' 42#5 (2013): 578-597. * McCulloch, Gary. ''Educational reconstruction: The 1944 education act and the twenty-first century'' (Routledge, 2013). * McCulloch, Gary. "British Labour Party education policy and comprehensive education: from Learning to Live to Circular 10/65." ''History of Education'' 45#2 (2016): 225-245. [http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/0046760X.2015.1076067?src=recsys online] * Middleton, Nigel. "Lord Butler and the Education Act of 1944," ''British Journal of Educational Studies'' (1972) 20#2 pp 178–191 * Simon, Brian. "The 1944 Education Act: A Conservative Measure?," ''History of Education.'' (1986) 15#1 pp 31–43 * Wallace, Ron G. "The origins and authorship of the 1944 Education Act." ''History of Education'' 10.4 (1981): 283-290. DOI:10.1080/0046760810100405 * Wright, Susannah. "The Faith of the Democrat: The Association for Education in Citizenship, 1934–1944." in ''Morality and Citizenship in English Schools'' (Palgrave Macmillan, London, 2017) pp. 177-208. {{refend}}
==External links== * {{UK-LEG}} * {{UK-LEG|asmade=yes}} *[https://www.parliament.uk/about/living-heritage/transformingsociety/electionsvoting/case-study-radical-politicians-in-the-north-east/introduction/about-the-case-study1111111/ Ellen Wilkinson & the 1944 Education Act – UK Parliament Living Heritage] *[https://www.theguardian.com/education/2004/apr/21/ofsted.schools Change and continuity: reflections on the Butler act] Speech to commemorate the 60th anniversary of the 1944 Education Act, given by the chief inspector of schools, David Bell
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Category:United Kingdom Acts of Parliament 1944 Category:Acts of the Parliament of the United Kingdom concerning England and Wales Category:Repealed United Kingdom Acts of Parliament Category:1944 in England Category:1944 in Wales Category:August 1944 in the United Kingdom Category:Food policy in the United Kingdom Category:Milk Category:Secondary education in England Category:Secondary education in Wales Category:United Kingdom Education Acts