Towards Co-ordination in Great Britain: A Survey
| Autor: | W.O. Lester Smith |
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| Rok vydání: | 1955 |
| Předmět: | |
| Zdroj: | The ANNALS of the American Academy of Political and Social Science. 302:74-81 |
| ISSN: | 1552-3349 0002-7162 |
| DOI: | 10.1177/000271625530200112 |
| Popis: | ADMINISTRATIVE chaos" was a phrase much used by reformers at the close of the nineteenth century to describe the educational landscape. Irrespective of their political sympathies, they recognized that constitutional reconstruction, both at the center and locally, was a prerequisite of advance. This reconstruction was accomplished by two Acts of Parliament, the Board of Education Act (1899) and the Education Act (1902); the former dealt with administration at the center, the latter provided the system of local administration that, with minor modifications, operates today. The Board of Education Act established one central department for education in England and Wales, with functions and responsibilities previously discharged by three separate bodies. The Education Act abolished the 2,568 School Boards, and also the 788 School Attendance Committees which had functioned where there was no School Board, and it made the 62 County Councils and 69 County Borough Councils the local education authorities. Both acts contained concessions and compromises which tended to make the new organization less orderly than it would have been without them. Many had hoped for a Ministry of Education and a Minister, but instead Parliament created a Board of Education. The effect, however, was much the same, for the Board, which was composed of the chief officers of state, never met throughout the forty-five years of its life. But the fiction of an active board was always retained in spite of the fact that presidents functioned without its advice. "Successive Presidents delighted to describe themselves as 'transient heads of a phantom Board,' and officials exercised their ingenuity in attributing to the Board anthropomorphic qualities. Thus the Board was 'pleased' or 'surprised'; it learned with 'satisfaction' or 'concern'; it is even alleged to have been 'unable to retain its composure' at some flagrant irregularity."' No explanation of the government's preference for a "Board" was forthcoming at the time the act was passed; when asked later to account for it, the Duke of Devonshire, who steered the bill in the House of Lords, said that he had forgotten the why and wherefore. But it is reasonable to assume that in the laissez-faire mood of that time it was deemed better to have a |
| Databáze: | OpenAIRE |
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