British education has, for many centuries, influenced and been influenced by British society. It is an unusual system, characterized by national financing and local control. Earliest education in the United Kingdom began in medieval churches and monasteries; for the most part, religious subjects were taught. Many people were educated by apprenticeship to an employer or in a guild. The influence of humanism changed the focus of education: curricula were broadened to include history, literature, and languages, although religion continued to be taught. Church schools were secularized or closed after the Reformation. Charity schools for poor students and grammar schools for the more affluent were predominant in the 16th and 17th centuries and continued until the late 19th century. After the Restoration, in the middle of the 17th century, the number of endowed parish elementary and grammar schools increased. The 18th-century attitude toward education was influenced by French philosophers, who were great proponents of education for all. Political innovators in England advocated publicly provided education. Nineteenth-century schools--charity, privately endowed, village, or parish--flourished and helped to educate large numbers of children, and some adults. Elementary education for children from the ages of 5 to 10 first became free and mandatory after the passage of the Elementary Education Act of 1870. An extensive network of voluntary schools, many of them provided by churches and charities, existed long before that date. Indeed, by contemporary European standards, a high proportion of the British population was already literate by 1870. Compulsory education was extended by law to 11-year-olds in 1893 and to 12-year-olds in 1899. At the end of World War I the minimum age at which children could leave school was raised to 14; at the end of World War II it was raised to 15. In 1973 it was raised again to 16, although a growing proportion of pupils stay in school until they are 17 or 18. ADMINISTRATION AND FINANCE After 1870 local school boards were established to assume control of the existing voluntary schools and to found new ones. In 1902 these independent boards were abolished, and their functions were taken over by all-purpose local authorities: county councils, which had been created in the 1880s, and city or borough councils, which had existed for many centuries. The local councils selected education committees from among their members; these Local Education Authorities are still responsible for all education in Britain except in universities. The system as a whole--again, with the exception of universities--was presided over by a president of the board of education, who was a member of the cabinet. This title was later changed to minister of education and was changed again in 1964, when its holder became responsible for universities as well, to secretary of state for education and science. Authority The British education system is conventionally described as "a national system locally administered." It is a partnership between the central government (the Department of Education and Science) and the 104 Local Education Authorities, ranging from the gigantic Inner London Education Authority to those that administer schools in remote and mountainous counties of Wales such as Powys and Gwynedd. Scottish primary and secondary education are administered separately by a similar partnership between the Scottish Education Department (a division of the office of the secretary of state for Scotland) and the 12 regional authorities, ranging from Strathclyde, which includes half the population of Scotland, to the Shetland Islands. Schools in Northern Ireland are also administered separately. The state schools are Protestant, and a Roman Catholic parochial school system also exists. Although the local authorities retain the primary responsibility for the administration of British schools, the Department of Education and Science planned to establish a national curriculum in the Great Education Reform Bill (1987). Individual schools would also be allowed ato "opt out" of local control and be controlled nationally. Funding British schools, colleges, and universities, like those in most European countries, are financed almost entirely by public funds, either from the central government in London or from local education authorities. Only about 2,800 of Britain's more than 35,000 primary and secondary schools are private institutions. Unlike its European neighbors, however, the national government of Britain is not involved in the detailed administration of individual institutions or in determining the actual education they provide; the latter is the responsibility of teachers and professors alone. Public expenditure on education in Britain in 1987-88 was projected at $24.6 billion. Local authorities receive only about one-third of their income from property taxes, known as rates. The rest is provided by the central government in the form of a rate-support grant, the amount of which is negotiated each autumn. Local authorities, however, are free to spend this money as they wish, within limits established by law. They can, for instance, choose to spend more on education and less on housing than the government had assumed in its calculation of the grant. They can also supplement their income by increasing the rates they charge residents, although in the 1980s the central government assumed power to limit rates. The central government maintains tighter control over expenditures for capital improvements, such as new buildings and expensive equipment. Any large projects must be individually approved by the Department of Education and Science. The department is also directly involved in the negotiation of teachers' salaries, which are uniform throughout the country and constitute a large part of the education budget. UNIVERSAL EDUCATION There are more than 10 million students in Britain's 35,000 schools. About 50,000 attend the nation's 1,000 nursery schools, which accept children between the ages of 3 and 5--the start of compulsory schooling. About 4.8 million are educated in the 27,000 primary schools, which are usually divided into infants' departments, for children up to age 7, and junior schools for those aged 8 to 11. There are 4 million pupils enrolled in Britain's 5,400 secondary schools. In addition, about 150,000 students with learning difficulties and other handicaps attend 1,800 special schools. Primary Schools Since the 1950s the traditional approach to the education of younger children, having pupils sitting in rows and learning by rote, has been replaced by a more relaxed and informal approach. This change was highlighted by the report on primary schools (1967) by a committee under Lady Plowden. This report recommended, among other things, the abolition of corporal punishment and the hiring of more teachers. It also recommended that educational priority areas be established in the most deprived areas of Britain's cities. The primary curriculum has also been greatly extended in recent years. New approaches to reading and mathematics have been developed, on the whole with considerable success. Modern languages, in particular French, have been introduced into primary schools, but with less success. The moves to liberalize the primary schools have been strongly supported by the teachers themselves, in particular by the National Union of Teachers, to which most British teachers belong. Welsh is the main language of instruction in primary and some secondary schools in primarily Welsh-speaking areas of Wales; in English-speaking areas of the country, schools are bilingual, with classes taught in English or Welsh. Irish is taught as a second language in Roman Catholic schools in Northern Ireland. Secondary Schools Many of the beneficial changes in primary education have been made possible by the abolition of the notorious "11 plus" examination, named after the age at which children took it. This examination, based largely on verbal reasoning and mathematical ability, was used to decide which children would go on to strictly academic secondary schools (grammar schools) and which would go to the so-called secondary modern schools, which included vocational courses. Even in the few areas where this dual system of secondary schools still exists, children are now assessed on the basis of their total school performance, not by examinations. In most parts of Britain the old grammar and secondary modern schools have been replaced by comprehensive secondary schools that all children in the district attend, whatever their academic ability. This change was initiated by the Labour government in 1966 and continued even after the Conservative party returned to power in 1970. After the return of Labour in 1974, the changeover to comprehensive schools was accelerated. The return of the conservatives to power in 1979 has not affected this trend. The creation of the comprehensive school has also led to radical changes in school examinations, which until recently were oriented almost exclusively to the academic pupil, and in particular to those wishing to enter higher education. Even today, the brighter children normally take the ordinary level (O level) of the Graduate Certificate of Education (GCE) in five to eight separate subjects at about the age of 16, and take the advanced level (A level) of the GCE in two or three subjects two years later. Their chances of being admitted to a university or other institution of higher education depend on their performance on A level examinations, which are graded A to E. Almost one-fourth of those leaving school pass examinations in at least five subjects at O level, and about half of these receive two A level passes, the minimum required for entry to a university degree course. In the 1970s a less academic examination system, called the Certificate of Secondary Education (CSE), was introduced for the majority of students, those who do not aim for higher education. About a quarter of the British students, however, leave school without any formal qualification. In the late 1980s the O level examination was expected to be replaced by a broader General Certificate of Secondary Education (GCSE). Different systems of secondary examinations have been used in Northern Ireland and in Scotland. The Scottish examination system has not emphasized the dichotomy between academic and vocational subjects. In most Commonwealth countries, secondary students take qualifying examinations prepared in collaboration with Cambridge University. Pre-university-level education is the responsibility of each country. Independent Schools About 8% of British children attend independent schools--private, preparatory, and other independent schools--for which fees are charged. The education offered in these institutions is generally deemed superior to that offered in the state system. The educational privilege and social prestige have enabled many graduates of these schools to achieve high positions in all phases of British society. The "public schools"--so called because they were endowed, in contrast with private schools that operated at the financial risk of the master--include \TCharterhouse\t, \TEton College\t, \THarrow School\t, \TRugby School\t, and \TWinchester College\t. Girls' public schools include Cheltenham Ladies' College and Roedean School. HIGHER EDUCATION The pinnacle of British education is the 45 universities, which enroll about 296,000 students, 65,000 of them postgraduates. Admission is highly competitive: only 9% in the 18-year-old age group are offered places. But the close attention undergraduates receive, which is still one of the most remarkable attributes of British higher education, makes it difficult for a student to fail. The dropout rate is just over 5%. \TOxford\t (12th century) and \TCambridge\t (13th century) are the two oldest and most famous universities, but four of the eight Scottish universities were established before 1600. The majority of universities began far more recently. The earliest, great civic universities (e.g., at Birmingham, Leeds, Liverpool, Manchester) of the Midlands and the North were founded in the Victorian era, as were the universities of London and Wales. More universities (e.g., at Exeter, Hull, Leicester, Southampton) were established by the middle of the 20th century. Twenty-one new universities (e.g., at Essex, Kent, Stirling, Sussex, Warwick, York) were founded in the 1960s and '70s. British universities enjoy a high degree of autonomy: they admit whom they wish, teach them as they wish, and award their own degrees. Since the early days of the 20th century, however, they have received a growing proportion of their income from the government. Today taxation is almost their only significant source of support. Historically, the autonomy of universities was safeguarded by the University Grants Committee (UGC), a buffer between them and the state consisting largely of academics, which advised the government on the financial needs of the universities. In the late 1980s, however, the UGC was slated to be replaced by a University Funding Council under direct political control. Other Institutions The British system of higher education also includes 32 new institutions called polytechnics, which have their roots in earlier technical education. In many respects they are similar to the universities, although their admission requirements are slightly less demanding, and they are more committed to vocational subjects, such as social work, teacher education, and business management. In the 1960s, the polytechnics absorbed the formerly independent colleges of art and business; in the late 1970s they assumed principal responsibility for teacher training, which had previously been done in independent colleges of education. Altogether, more than 500,000 students are enrolled in full-time higher education, and almost 3 million students are enrolled part-time, most of them in the more than 600 colleges of further education and in adult education. Perhaps the most distinguished British contribution to educational development since World War II is the \TOpen University\t, which teaches about 120,000 degree-level students by radio, television, and correspondence. Peter Scott Bibliography: Burgess, Tyrrell, A Guide to English Schools (1972); Curtis, Stanley, History of Education in Great Britain, 7th ed. (1971); Dent, Harold C., Education in England and Wales (1977); Evans, Keith, The English Educational System (1975); Loukes, Harold, et al., Education: An Introduction (1984); Lowndes, George A. N., The British Educational Systems (1977); Maclure, J. Stuart, Educational Documents, England and Wales, 1816-1967 (1971); Morris, Max, and Griggs, Clive, Education: The Wasted Years, 1973-1986 (1987); Smith, William O. L., Education in Great Britain, 5th ed. (1967).