Introduction on Compulsory Education

To create a more skilled workforce- Britain had been ‘the workshop of the world’ but other countries were catching up. Many employers believed that, in order to remain competitive, the new industrial society required a numerate, literate workforce able to cope with the complexities of modern industrial production.

To improve the effectiveness of our armies- the high casualties of the Crimean War (1854-6) were seen as partly due to inexperience and poor tactics. Better-trained, fitter soldiers might have been given Britain a better showing.

To re-socialize the feckless (aimless or wasteful) poor- many Victorians…