The Education (Scotland) Act, 1918, in Historical Context

Abstract

The purpose of this chapter is to provide insights into the historical context and the process that led to the Education (Scotland) Act, 1918. The Christian denominations were very influential in the development of school education in Scotland and were offered the opportunity to be accommodated within a state system of schooling in the Education (Scotland) Act, 1872. The Catholic and Episcopal churches refused and after a series of protracted and complex negotiations, the Education (Scotland) Act, 1918, provided a further opportunity that was accepted by both churches, but the integration of the Catholic schools was slower than might have been expected. A number of important themes are highlighted in this chapter including the training of Catholic teachers, the service to the poor and the role of the religious orders and congregations.

Introduction

The aim of this chapter is to explore some of the main events that led up to the Education (Scotland) Act, 1918. It is important from the onset to acknowledge the long history of Catholic education and Catholic schooling that has existed in Scotland. This can be traced back to St. Columba and possibly to St. Ninian.¹ St. Columba arrived in Iona around 563 and this was the base for the establishment of monasteries all over Scotland.² The seminaries attached to some of these monasteries were initially for the education of the monks, but around the seventh century lay students were admitted.³ These students were probably boys who lived near the monasteries. The continued education of lay people in the monasteries was consolidated throughout the medieval monastic period, though this option would only be available to those who could afford to pay.⁴ Later, education was also provided by song schools, grammar schools and the collegiate churches.⁵ The establishment of the universities of St Andrews, Glasgow and Aberdeen was of key importance in the flourishing of education in Scotland.⁶ These were all ecclesiastical institutions. The University of St Andrews was established in 1410 and recognised as a university by a series of papal bulls from Pope Benedict XIII. The University of Glasgow was founded in 1451 by a papal bull from Pope Nicholas V. The University of Aberdeen was founded by William Elphinstone, Bishop of Aberdeen, in 1495 and granted university status by a papal bull from Pope Alexander VI.

In recognising this long and rich history and the subsequent impact of the Reformation in Scotland on education and Catholic education, it is only right to commend the quality of the contemporary scholarship that has been focused on in these periods.⁷ However, that history is not within the scope of this book, which locates itself in the late eighteenth to twenty-first centuries, with a primary focus on the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. The different authors presented here draw on the tradition of scholarship that has focused on the history of Catholic schools in the nineteenth to twentieth centuries, and they extend, expand and deepen this scholarship. The legacy of the extant scholarship has produced many fascinating studies on the history of Catholic schools, including the establishment of the first Catholic schools in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries; the social and economic conditions of the Catholic community; the maintenance of the Catholic school system; the role of Catholic schools in the period before the introduction of mass compulsory state-funded schools in Scotland; the persistent challenges of training a sufficient number of Catholic teachers; the negotiations between the Church and the State concerning state funding for Catholic schools; the key role of the religious orders and congregations in establishing Catholic schools that were recognised for high-quality education, especially secondary schools; and the putative yet persistent claims of the relationship between Catholic schools and sectarianism.⁸

This chapter will provide an overview of the establishment of Catholic schools in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries and their growth and development throughout the early to mid-nineteenth century to the twentieth century. This overview will address some of the key themes of this history. The first section is focused on the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. The early post-Reformation Catholic schools in the late eighteenth century will be discussed, as will the schools that were founded in Paisley in 1816 and in Glasgow in 1817. Section two will survey the period leading up to the Royal Commission and the Education (Scotland) Act, 1872. The section commences with a concise account of the role of the different Christian Churches in school education in this period. The role of the religious orders and congregations and their contribution to Catholic schooling will be highlighted. The continued shortage of Catholic teachers will be explored, including an examination of the impact of the pupil-teacher scheme. The next section will provide a brief summary of the process towards a national system of schooling in Scotland and the work of the Royal Commission and the findings of the reports and special reports. The work of the Commission was conducted in the context of children working to help support the family. The section which then follows will delineate the key points of the Education (Scotland) Act, 1872. The response of the Catholic Church to the 1872 Act will be discussed in the following section, identifying the reasons why the Catholic Church refused to transfer their schools. This section will also include a brief summary of some of the recurring challenges faced by Catholic schools, such as the poverty of the Catholic community and the physical working conditions of Catholic schools. The next section sketches the early history of teacher training in Scotland and the influence of the Church of Scotland and Free Church of Scotland in the operation of teacher training. It also details the provision for Catholic teacher training that was available in England and Scotland and the opening of the Notre Dame Teacher Training College in Glasgow in 1895. The main part of the chapter follows with a summary of the lead-up to the Education (Scotland) Act, 1918, before providing a scrutiny of the key sections of the Act that pertain to denominational schooling and their implications for Catholic schools. The chapter will then offer an explanation of the response of the Catholic Church to the 1918 Act and will trace the subsequent events that expedited the transferal of the majority of Catholic schools. The chapter will end with some concluding remarks.

The Late Eighteenth and Early Nineteenth Centuries

There is evidence of small Catholic schools being established in various parts of Scotland in the late eighteenth century, including Edinburgh (1788), Glenlivet (1790) and Aberdeen (1791).⁹ The catalyst for the wider growth and development of Catholic schooling was the increase in the Catholic population in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. In the early nineteenth century, the Catholic population in Scotland more than doubled between 1800 and 1827 from 30,000 to 70,000.¹⁰ This was primarily caused by a steady flow of Irish Catholic immigrants seeking employment in Scotland, mainly in the urban and industrial areas.¹¹ The increase in the Catholic population, especially in the city of Glasgow and the West of Scotland, meant that there was an increase in Catholic children and this raised concerns about their education.

There were a number of important developments in Catholic schooling in the early nineteenth century. Recent research has highlighted that the first Catholic school in Paisley was established in 1816 and was run by a committee of twelve Protestants and twelve Catholics.¹² In 1817, the Catholic Schools Society was set up in Glasgow, and this is one of the key events that is frequently cited in the history of the evolution of Catholic schools in the nineteenth century.¹³ There were fifteen Catholics and fifteen Protestants on the board.¹⁴ The President of the Society was Kirkman Finlay, a Protestant manufacturer. The teachers in the schools were Catholic but initially the Protestant Bible was used and no creed was taught.¹⁵ It is useful to examine the Catholic Schools Society within the context of a series of developments in schooling in the city of Glasgow in the early nineteenth century. Dr Thomas Chalmers, at that time a Minister in the Church of Scotland, was concerned about the levels of ignorance in his parish (the Tron in Glasgow).¹⁶ He established schools that were supervised by the local Kirk session. Similarly, the Glasgow magistrates commenced establishing schools in the city. Returning to Kirkman Finlay, Lenman argues that Finlay felt he owed this support to the Catholic Schools Society because he employed a large number of Catholic workers without whom he would have been unable to operate.¹⁷ A number of Catholic historians emphasise the importance of the practical and symbolic aspects of the role and support of Kirkman Finlay.¹⁸ He was a prominent businessman and politician, and his support prompted very mixed responses from his co-religionists and was ‘in the teeth of popular Protestant resentment’.¹⁹ The legislation for Catholic emancipation in 1829 was also to be unpopular.²⁰

Dr Chalmers, who was a popular preacher, helped raise funds for the Catholic schools with public sermons.²¹ He would later acquire considerable fame as he helped instigate the ‘disruption’ in 1843 that led to the establishment of the Free Church of Scotland, of which he was destined to become one of the leaders.²² It is, of course, highly significant that twelve Protestants should help support the first Catholic school in Paisley and, similarly, fifteen Protestants in Glasgow. It is equally significant that two eminent members of the Protestant community should be prominent in the founding and initial financial support of Catholic schools in Glasgow.

The Lead-Up to the Royal Commission and the Education (Scotland) Act, 1872

David Stow helped establish the Glasgow Infant School Society in 1827.²³ Stow was influenced by Dr Thomas Chalmers’ views on education and found inspiration in the work of Samuel Wilderspin and his infant school in Spitalfields, London.²⁴ Later Stow would be one of the secretaries with George Lewis of the Glasgow Educational Society, which was founded in 1834 to promote the interests of the established Church and a national system of school education.²⁵ The position of the Church of Scotland as a national Presbyterian Church was challenged in the 1830s by an increasing rejection of the established church and by the growth of other Churches such as the Methodists, Brethren and Baptists.²⁶ A further serious challenge was to be posed by the Disruption of 1843. The consequence of the Disruption was the creation of the Free Church in Scotland, and this had grave implications for the national Church, as did the establishment of the United Presbyterian Church in 1847.²⁷ The Church of Scotland was only attracting around a third of church-goers.

The Free Church was to make a major investment in schooling in Scotland, and this diversification in Protestant schooling and the increase in the schooling organised by minority denominations (Roman Catholic and Episcopalians) contributed towards the weakening of the dominance of the Church of Scotland in schooling.²⁸ The state began to treat all of the denominations equally.

Catholic schools grew and developed as the Catholic community increased in number. The 1851 census identified thirty-two Catholic schools in Scotland (though there was an acknowledgement that the available data was incomplete).²⁹ The arrival of Irish Catholics fleeing a series of famines in the middle of the nineteenth century would precipitate a marked rise in the Catholic population, especially in the West of Scotland. While Catholic elementary or primary schools would increase exponentially, the provision of Catholic secondary level education would remain low throughout the nineteenth century.³⁰

Waves of male and female religious orders and congregations were invited to Scotland and were encouraged to engage in Catholic schooling. They were all to have a major impact on the quality of Catholic schooling. Before 1560, male religious were quite diverse in terms of the forms of religious life they followed, and there was a mixture of enclosed and unenclosed: monks, canon regulars and friars.³¹ Male religious were greater in number than female in the pre-1560 era and female religious were much less diverse and strictly enclosed. The return of male and female religious to Scotland in the nineteenth century ushered in a new era in a number of ways. There were far more female religious than male and the majority of the religious (both male and female) were unenclosed. Female orders and congregations often adopted a variety of roles in the Catholic community. Many of them were involved in school education and also in social welfare.³²

The first female and male religious to come to Scotland in the post-Reformation Catholic Church were committed to school education. The Ursulines of Jesus arrived in Edinburgh in 1834 from France and reintroduced religious life to Scotland when they opened the first convent since the sixteenth-century Reformation. They also opened St Margaret’s school, which was a boarding school for young ladies of the middle classes. A small group of sisters rented a house in Reid’s Court and took over the Catholic poor schools and provided free medicine to the poor.³³ They later taught in the Catholic schools in Perth between 1865 and 1910.

Two Franciscan sisters from France, Sister Adelaide and Sister Veronica, arrived in Glasgow in 1847. They were the first religious congregation to be established in the city in the post-Reformation era.³⁴ They established the congregation of the Franciscan Sisters of the Immaculate Conception and Sister Adelaide set up a private day school.³⁵ The fees from the school enabled Sister Veronica to teach in the orphanage in Abercromby Street.³⁶ The Franciscans grew quickly and were soon operating Catholic schools in Glasgow (notably, Charlotte Street) and later Inverness, Edinburgh, Aberdeen, Greenock and Bothwell.³⁷ The Sisters of Mercy arrived in Glasgow in 1849 from Limerick to engage in teaching and nursing.³⁸ In the 1850s, they were operating two day and two night schools in Glasgow.³⁹ A new convent and convent school were opened in Hill Street, Garnethill, in Glasgow in 1877. In 1886, they also opened St Thomas of Aquinas College in Edinburgh.⁴⁰

There are other less well-documented histories of female religious, often working outside of the cities. A good example would be the Sisters of the Cross and Passion, a religious order founded in Manchester in 1849.⁴¹ The Sisters taught in Catholic primary schools in Ayrshire, specifically in Birnieknowe (beginning in 1894), Waterside (1906) and Irvine (1921).⁴² They also taught in Fife, Lochgelly (1907). The Faithful Companions of Jesus founded and taught in St Margaret’s Convent School in Paisley from 1896. The Sisters of St Joseph of Cluny arrived in Girvan in 1879 to teach in the local Catholic primary school.⁴³ The first sisters to work in the Diocese of Galloway since the Reformation, they later opened Sacred Heart Secondary School in 1886.

The Marist Brothers were the first male religious to arrive in post-Reformation Scotland, opening St Mungo’s Academy in Glasgow in 1858.⁴⁴ By 1864, they were running four schools in the city.⁴⁵ They opened a school in Dundee in 1860 (in two rooms that were in the basement of St Andrew’s Church) and a higher grade school in 1862.⁴⁶ The Marists had a brief spell in charge of St Mary’s, Broughton Street, Edinburgh in the late nineteenth century but had possibly overstretched themselves and relinquished their duties. The Marists were more successful in Dumfries where they took charge of a school attached to St Andrew’s in 1873 and later established St Joseph’s College. The Society of Jesus (Jesuits ) opened St Aloysius’ College in Glasgow in 1859, moving to the Garnethill district in 1866.⁴⁷

The members of the religious orders and congregations were dedicated to teaching, but there remained a shortage of qualified Catholic teachers in Catholic schools and an over-reliance on pupil-teachers.⁴⁸ The pupil-teacher system was established in 1846. The pupil-teacher was an apprentice who was remunerated with a small salary, and there was a possibility that they could pursue their education at university or at a training college.⁴⁹ The work in school, the preparation in the evening and, for some, attendance at night classes meant that pupil-teachers often worked long hours. The pupil-teacher system was adequate for a simple school education that concentrated on the three Rs but was not designed for the more sophisticated curriculum that emerged in the late nineteenth century.⁵⁰ The system was abolished in 1906, and the ‘junior student’ system was introduced, a system that was never to attract much popularity.⁵¹

In 1847, the Catholic Poor Schools Committee was set up with the aims of supporting Catholic schools in obtaining grants and establishing training colleges that would train Catholic teachers.⁵² The government grants could be used to supplement the salaries of pupil-teachers as well as for school buildings (though not if the building also functioned as a church).⁵³

The Argyll Commission

The journey towards a national system of schooling in Scotland was protracted and highly complex.⁵⁴ There was an early attempt at creating a system of national education with the creation of the short-lived National Education Association (NEA) in 1850. The barriers to a national system included, perhaps unsurprisingly given the scale of Christian Church involvement in school education, the disputed issue of the nature of religious instruction in a non-denominational school.⁵⁵ The NEA initially supported the removal of religious instruction from schools. The Church of Scotland favoured retaining the status quo in religious instruction but allowing the opportunity for a ‘conscience clause’. Their solution was to retain schools under Church control or to ensure that religious instruction was enshrined in law in a national system. The United Presbyterians supported the idea that religious instruction should not feature in state schools. The view in the Free Church was more complicated, with some opting for a national system, even if secular, and others who preferred the guaranteed retention of religious instruction. In the end, the Free Church promoted the idea of a national system which included religious instruction. One of the main challenges, then, in the movement to any form of national school system was the accommodation of the views of the different Presbyterian Churches. The Catholic and Episcopalian Churches were more concerned that the national schools would have a Presbyterian character, and they were very anxious to retain their unique Christian identities in their own schools.

The proposal to introduce the ‘Revised Code’ in Scotland prompted considerable debate and a ‘bitter clash’.⁵⁶ The Revised Code was designed to regulate grants and reward schools by the ‘payment of results’. This entailed measurement of results in the pupil figures, attendance patterns at the school and how schools performed in annual inspections. The Code was deemed problematic for a number of reasons, such as its evolution from the Newcastle Commission of 1861, the focus on England and Wales and the fact that there was no mention of religious instruction.⁵⁷ The Code was actually introduced in Scotland on 1 April 1864 but was suspended in June of that year after protests, and the Government set up a Commission of Inquiry into Scottish education.

In 1864, the Royal Commission was established under the leadership of the Duke of Argyll. The Commission published three reports and three special reports between 1865 and 1868.⁵⁸ The first report presented the findings of written and oral questions that had been posed to many of the key people involved in schooling.⁵⁹ The second report focused on elementary schools and the third examined burgh schools. The Commission reported that around four-fifths of the total number of children in Scotland were attending school. The fifth that were absent from school amounted to over 90,000 children.⁶⁰ The schools were varied in terms of quality of education provided. The Commission produced a report on the state of education in Glasgow in 1866. This report revealed that only half of the children in Glasgow were enrolled in school.⁶¹ It further revealed that only around a third of the Catholic children of school age in Glasgow were attending school.⁶² This was not due to a shortage of space in the Catholic schools but was caused by the necessity for many of the children to work to help support their family.⁶³ Around a third of the Catholic children who were being schooled were being educated in adventure schools or in other inferior forms of schooling.⁶⁴

Prior to the 1872 Act, the education of children across Scotland was highly inconsistent in terms of quality of education provided and, in some places, attendance. It was often dependent on parental attitudes towards the benefits of education and the ability of the family to pay the weekly fees.⁶⁵ The fees were small but could prove problematic for families with a large number of children. This was compounded by the fact that if the older children were at school, they were unable to work to help support the family. In the late 1860s in rural areas, children as young as nine were able to obtain summer work on farms. The children would often work in the summer and attend school only in winter.⁶⁶ In industrial areas, boys as young as ten or eleven could be employed as weavers or miners, and girls could be employed in sewing at an even younger age.⁶⁷ The Mines Act of 1842 introduced a ban on any boy under ten years of age being employed in a mine. The subsequent Coal Mines Regulation Act of 1860 raised the age to twelve but permitted boys aged between ten and twelve to work in the mines if they attended school twice a week or could provide a certificate of numeracy and literacy. The figures for school attendance in 1871 demonstrate that Airdrie (68% for all age groups of boys and girls 5–12 years), Coatbridge (69% for boys and 72% for girls) and Glasgow (71% for boys and 70% for girls) were the lowest figures for Scotland.⁶⁸ The inconsistencies in the education of the children and the concomitant levels of illiteracy and innumeracy prompted the Argyll Commission to move towards recommending a national system of schooling.

The Education (Scotland) Act, 1872

The 1872 Act introduced compulsory schooling for children aged five to thirteen:

It shall be the duty of every parent to provide elementary education in reading, writing, and arithmetic for his children, between five and thirteen years of age, and if unable from poverty to pay therefor, to apply to the parochial board of the parish or burgh in which he resides, and it shall be the duty of the said board to pay out of the poor fund the ordinary and reasonable fees for the elementary education of every such child or such part of such fees as the parent shall be unable to pay (section 69)

Where a child under the age of thirteen was in some form of employment, the employer also had responsibilities when the child had not received at least three years regular schooling between the ages of five and thirteen and could not read or write (section 72). A child could be exempted if a certificate was produced of ‘ability to read and write, and of a knowledge of elementary arithmetic, granted in favour of any child by one of Her Majesty’s inspectors’ (section 73).

The Act decreed that within twelve months of the passing of the Act, school Boards were to be elected for every parish and burgh (sections 3–8). The parochial and burgh schools would come under the jurisdiction of the Boards and denominational or voluntary schools could be transferred to the Boards without compensation. All schools that were administered by the Boards would be known as ‘public’ schools.⁶⁹ The public schools and all other schools open to inspection would be available to all denominations (section 68). Section 68 affirmed that parents had the right to withdraw their children from ‘any instruction in religious subjects and from any religious observance’. Instruction in religious subjects or practice of religious observance was to be at the beginning or the end of the day or at both the beginning and the end of the day. The vast majority of the Presbyterian schools had transferred by 1880.⁷⁰ The figure of 1306 Church of Scotland schools that existed in 1872 was reduced to 146 by 1880 and the 550 Free Church schools of 1872 were reduced to 39 by 1880. These numbers would continue to fall gradually up to the Education (Scotland) Act, 1918.

The Response of the Catholic Church to the Education (Scotland) Act, 1872

The Catholic Church decided not to transfer its schools when the 1872 Act was enacted to protect their denominational status, and the right to approve teachers and to retain practice in religious observance and religious instruction. The Church was very concerned that there would be no compensation for schools that were transferred. The bishops and clergy also had serious reservations about Board schools, perceiving them to have the potential to favour the agenda of the Church of Scotland or even lead to the dominance of secularism in national education.⁷¹

Nevertheless, the 1872 Act had serious implications for Catholic schools. The introduction of compulsory schooling under the 1872 Act applied to the denominational schools that had not transferred, and this meant that the Catholic Church faced increased numbers in its schools.⁷² The consequence was further major challenges in funding, staffing and resourcing the schools. One important outcome of the 1872 Act was the issue of the qualifications of the ‘principal’ teacher. Section 56 of the Act states that: ‘No person shall be appointed to the office of principal teacher in a public school who is not the holder of a certificate of competence’. It was to be the responsibility of the Scotch Education Department after the passing of the Act to establish the regulations and procedures for obtaining the certificate of competency (section 57).

There were recurring issues that created serious challenges for the Catholic community and the maintenance of Catholic schools between the two Acts of 1872 and 1918. These challenges included the poverty of many of the Catholic families, poor attendance at school and the lack of Catholic teachers. Stevenson argues that the 1872 Act ‘did nothing to help’ these pressing needs in the Catholic sector.⁷³ The poverty of many Catholic families remained a serious challenge, and this had a detrimental effect on attendance at school. Catholic families required children to work from an early age to help support the family. There were other issues: sometimes a lack of adequate clothing and equipment prevented children from attending school. The Saint Vincent De Paul Society (SVDP) had a major role to play in the East End of Glasgow in supporting children to attend school by providing shoes, clothing, equipment and a lunchtime meal.⁷⁴ Catholic teachers worked in school buildings that were often in poor condition. They often had to teach large classes, and the equipment available in the school was inferior to that provided in other schools.⁷⁵

The Education of Catholic Teachers

The early approach to teacher training in Scotland can be discerned in the work of John Wood and David Stow. John Wood became head of the sessional school in Edinburgh and the school became well known for the evolution of his ‘explanatory’ or ‘intellectual’ system.⁷⁶ By 1826, this was perceived to be a ‘model’ school and was used by the Church of Scotland to train teachers who were to be sent to the ‘Assembly’ schools in the Highlands.⁷⁷ As has been seen above, David Stow had established schools for infants in Glasgow, and the training of teachers in Glasgow was consolidated with the establishment of the ‘Normal seminary’ by the Glasgow Educational Society in 1837.⁷⁸ Both of these training schools were to come under the control of the Education Committee of the Church of Scotland (Edinburgh in 1837 and Glasgow in 1841). This meant that the Church of Scotland was effectively the leading body in the training of teachers.⁷⁹ As previously stated, the dominance of the Church of Scotland as a Presbyterian Church and in education was seriously challenged by the Disruption of 1843. One of the results of this was an increase in the number of teacher training institutions as the Free Church adopted the model of the structure of education that existed in the Church of Scotland. The Free Church of Scotland established its own Colleges in Glasgow and Edinburgh. David Stow headed the College in the Cowcaddens district of Glasgow, and the College in Edinburgh was established in Moray House.⁸⁰

The training colleges that were run by the Church of Scotland and the Free Church of Scotland were available for the training of students from all the denominations.⁸¹ Catholic schools, however, sought Catholic teachers who were well qualified in educational practices and understood the importance of the Catholic values at the heart of the Catholic school. Consequently, Catholic schools faced a recurring challenge in acquiring enough qualified teachers. There was an over-reliance on pupil-teachers and many of the teachers who were qualified were trained in Colleges in England. These Colleges in England—in Hammersmith, Liverpool and Wandsworth—were established with the encouragement and support of the Catholic Poor Schools Committee, and a steady stream of Scottish Catholics headed south to be trained as Catholic teachers. Scottish male students attended St Mary’s College, Hammersmith, which was founded in 1850 to train teaching Brothers and was available to laymen from 1854.⁸² The first Scottish student was Thomas Barnes from Edinburgh, who attended between 1854 and 1855.⁸³ Most female students attended Mount Pleasant College in Liverpool , which was opened in 1856 by the Sisters of Notre Dame.⁸⁴ Mary Jane Smith and Catherine McGarvie from Edinburgh were among the first Scottish students.⁸⁵ It is interesting to note that the Notre Dame Institute in England found the code that evolved from the Newcastle Commission and the payment by results that included a narrowing of the curriculum to be counter to their aims in school education.

Some Scottish female students attended Wandsworth, opened in 1874 by the Society of the Sacred Heart.⁸⁶ The Society of the Sacred Heart opened a school and a short-lived pupil-teacher training centre in Aberdeen.⁸⁷ The courses in England were costly and few families could afford the expense. The continuing problem in the production of a sufficient supply of qualified Catholic teachers for Catholic schools was exacerbated by the differential in the pay scales for teachers in Catholic schools and public schools. In 1917, the average salary of an assistant school master in a Catholic elementary school in Glasgow was £94.1s.6d. This compared unfavourably with the average salary for the same post in a public school £154.12s.0d.⁸⁸

The shortage of qualified Catholic teachers was to be addressed by the arrival in Glasgow of a group of Sisters of Notre Dame from Liverpool. The Scotch Education Department agreed to the creation of a Catholic Training College in 1891, and Archbishop Charles Petre Eyre of the Archdiocese of Glasgow invited the Sisters to Glasgow.⁸⁹ Sister Mary of St Philip and Sister Mary of St Wilfrid visited Glasgow in 1893 and selected suitable property in Dowanhill, Glasgow, for the College. The Scotch Education Department subsequently approved the establishment of a residential Catholic College in 1893. Four sisters, including Sister Mary of St Wilfrid, arrived in Glasgow in 1894 to be the founders of the convent and prepare the premises for the students. The formal opening of the Notre Dame Teacher Training College for Women in Glasgow took place in 1895. One of the important roles of the College was to prepare its students to raise standards in schools within the Catholic community.⁹⁰ In 1897, a practising school was set up for the College.

The regulations of 1906 governing the education and training of teachers meant that the preparation of teachers included completion of secondary education and, as a minimum, two years training at college or university.⁹¹ These entry requirements and qualifications differed from the system in England, and the qualifications acquired in England would no longer be acceptable in Scotland.⁹² In the early part of the twentieth century, male candidates for teaching resided at St Kentigern’s Hostel in Partickhill, and their studies combined religious instruction at the hostel and a two-year course at one of the Provincial Training Centres. After 1921, male students attended the Glasgow Provincial Training Centre in Jordanhill, Glasgow.⁹³

Despite these efforts to train teachers and the consequent increase in the number of qualified teachers, there remained nonetheless a shortage of teachers in Catholic schools.⁹⁴ FitzPatrick’s analysis of the crisis in Catholic schooling at the end of the First World War highlighted the shoddy condition of the buildings, overcrowding, poor resources and the lack of teachers as highly deleterious for any future improvement of Catholic schools.⁹⁵

The Lead-Up to the Education (Scotland) Act, 1918

Paterson argues that there were three main drivers for educational reform at the end of the First World War:

• 1. The simplification of the administration of education;

• 2. The projected incorporation of Catholic schools (and other voluntary schools) into the public sector;

• 3. The need to create an adequate framework for secondary education.⁹⁶

A number of issues had to be resolved before the enactment of the Education (Scotland) Act, 1918, which would be the legislative vehicle for the initiation of these reforms. The Scottish Education Reform Committee was established in 1916 and it began planning for the post-war era under the leadership of Alexander Morgan.⁹⁷ The Reform Committee promoted fairer remuneration for teachers and raising the school leaving age to fifteen. Morgan outlined two priorities in 1917: (1) equality of opportunity and (2), unsurprisingly given the context of the war years, moral education. An initial proposal in the administration of education, as recommended by the Reform Committee, was to devolve the responsibility for school education to the County and City Councils rather than ad hoc committees. The Scottish Secretary Robert Munro and the head of the Education Department, John Struthers, were sympathetic to this proposal.⁹⁸ In December 1917, Robert Munro introduced the Education (Scotland) Bill, which was intended to introduce this simplification of educational administration in Scotland.⁹⁹ There was considerable resistance to this idea from the Scottish School Boards Association, members of the Labour Party and the Churches (to retain their influence).¹⁰⁰ A compromise was adopted under the Education (Scotland) Act, 1918, and while the county remained the administrative body, there was a local ad hoc educational authority that was composed of elected representatives (using proportional representation) that included the Churches.¹⁰¹

There had been a series of unsuccessful attempts to reach some form of agreement or settlement between Catholic schools and the government in the early part of the twentieth century.¹⁰² The war years took a heavy toll on the efficient management and operation of the Catholic schools. The salaries of Catholic teachers, in particular, were becoming increasingly inadequate and Catholic schools were unable to address this sufficiently in a period of rising costs. In 1916, there was a move by the managers of the voluntary schools in Edinburgh, both Catholic and Episcopal, to propose the agreement of the lease of their schools to the Edinburgh School Board under certain conditions that would alleviate some of the financial burden and ensure the denominational status of the schools.¹⁰³ The proposed agreement signified that the schools would remain as proprietors and be responsible for structural repairs to the buildings. Teachers would be appointed by the Board, though they would have to be qualified to teach religion and be approved in terms of their Church membership and moral character. The Board would appoint a local clergyman as a religious examiner for the school, though he would be restricted to being present in the school at the time of religious instruction and the annual inspection. Any future Catholic school would come under the terms of the agreement as long as the Board was satisfied that the school was required.

The arrangement could not be realised because the Catholic authorities were seeking a national agreement, not a localised one. The managers of the Edinburgh Catholic schools and the majority of the Catholic Education Committee (a standing committee established in 1906 by the Catholic hierarchy to engage with the processes of the introduction of educational legislation) supported the proposal.¹⁰⁴ The school managers of the large and highly influential Archdiocese of Glasgow were opposed to the proposal, which contained the continuation of a significant financial burden and did not allow full control when appointing teachers. Section 20 of the Education (Scotland) Bill, 1917 precipitated further discussions between the government and the Catholic Church. Section 20 of this Bill represented a poorer agreement than the one that had been proposed in Edinburgh. The teachers would be taken over by the authorities and paid according to the appropriate pay scales; they would be required to have the requisite qualifications and be approved in religious belief and character, and religious instruction would continue not less than according to the use and wont of the former management. There were no assurances about Catholic schools that would be established in the future.

The Catholic Church was again divided as the Archbishop of Glasgow and the Auxiliary Bishop of Edinburgh rejected the Bill whereas the rest of the hierarchy and the Catholic Education Committee were willing to accept the Bill, though they did seek assurances about future Catholic schools. After some further extended and difficult negotiations, including disagreement with the final stages of the Bill by the Cathedral Chapter and senior clergy of the city of Glasgow, and intervention by the Holy See that supported the majority view to accept the Bill, agreement was reached. The Education (Scotland) Act, 1918 was passed through both Houses of Parliament and became an Act in October 1918. The Act received royal assent on 12 November 1918.

The Education (Scotland) Act, 1918

Section 18 of the 1918 Act refers to the new conditions for the inclusion of voluntary or denominational schools. There are no specific references to Catholic schools in this section, or elsewhere in the Act. The generic terms employed in section 18—voluntary or denominational schools—were applicable to all the remaining denominational schools that had not transferred: Catholic schools, Episcopalian schools, a small number of Presbyterian schools and other forms of voluntary schools.¹⁰⁵ Section 18 unequivocally introduced the opportunity for state-funded schooling for the remaining denominational schools.¹⁰⁶ The discussion below will restrict itself to a consideration of section 18 in reference to Catholic schools.

Section 18 offered the opportunity for Catholic schools to be transferred by sale or lease to the education authority. The education authority was bound to accept the transfer and if agreement could not be reached on the price or rent or other considerations, an arbiter would be appointed (section 18, (1)). Any Catholic school that transferred would be held and maintained as a public school and entitled to receive grants and also have sole power to regulate the curriculum and appoint teachers. In the short term, this would mean a considerable easing of the financial burden of maintaining the voluntary Catholic schools and, in the longer term, would mean that Catholic schools would be better maintained and better equipped.

There were three conditions attached to this regulation of the curriculum and appointment of teachers and, on the whole, these would be to the advantage of any school that transferred, certainly any Catholic school that transferred. These focused on the remuneration of staff, the qualifications of staff and approval of staff, and religious instruction and observance.

The staff who were at that point teaching in the schools would be taken over by the authority and, crucially, would be paid according to the same salary scale as other teachers:

of corresponding qualifications appointed to corresponding positions in other schools of the same authority. (section 18, (3), (i))

The condition concerning the remuneration of teachers would be welcomed by teachers in Catholic schools as this would resolve many of the issues around disparity in pay scales between Catholic schools and public schools.

All teaching staff to be appointed to ‘any such school’ would be required to have the appropriate qualifications to teach, and these would have to satisfy the Department. They would also have to be approved:

as regards their religious belief and character by representatives of the church or denominational body in whose interest the school has been conducted. (section 18, (3), (ii))

This meant that teachers for Catholic schools would have to be both qualified and approved.

The third condition was concerned with the time set aside for religious instruction and religious observance:

Subject to the provisions of section sixty-eight (conscience clause) of the Education (Scotland ) Act, 1872, the time set aside for religious instruction or observance in any such school shall not be less than that so set apart according to the use and wont of the former management of the school (section 18, (3), (iii))

The time for religious instruction and observance would not be restricted to the beginning or end of the day or to both the beginning and end of the day as was the case in the 1872 Act, but would be in accordance with the existing practice in the school. This condition was still subject to the conscience clause of the 1872 Act (section 68), which meant that parents could withdraw their children from religious instruction and observance. Nevertheless, the removal of the restriction that applied to the schools transferred under the 1872 Act would be highly advantageous for Catholic schools that transferred. The third condition required that the education authority appoint a supervisor of religious instruction in each school to report on the ‘efficiency of the religious instruction’ in the school. The post would not be remunerated and the supervisor would have to be approved in relation to religious belief and character (section 18, (3), (iii)).

There are two other very important points in section 18 that need to be examined. There was provision in section 18 (7) for the transfer of schools that might be built in the future (after the Act) by a voluntary body or denomination:

A school established after the passing of this Act to which this section would have applied had the school been in existence at that date may with the consent of the Department be transferred to the education authority.¹⁰⁷

Any such school that was transferred with the consent of the Department to the education authority would be under the conditions that had been set in section 18 of the 1918 Act. The second point refers to new schools that are required by a Church or denominational body after the passing of the 1918 Act. Section 18 (8) explains that if the Department is satisfied, after representations by an education authority or by a Church or denominational body and after inquiry by the Department, that a new school is necessary, it is lawful for the education authority to provide a new school. The new school would be subject to the conditions of subsection 3 of the 1918 Act that refer to the remuneration of teachers, the qualifications and approval of teachers, the arrangements for religious instruction and religious observance, and the appointment of a supervisor of religious instruction.

The Response of the Catholic Church to the Education (Scotland) Act, 1918

FitzPatrick states that ‘with the passing of the Education (Scotland) Act, 1918, a new era opened up for Catholic education’.¹⁰⁸ The offer of the transfer of the Catholic schools to the state system under the conditions of the 1918 Act appeared to alleviate many fears and anxieties of the Catholic community about the continued existence of a system of distinctively Catholic schooling. The continuation of the (then) accepted practices in religious instruction and observance and the approval of the religious belief and character of the teachers in the new state-funded Catholic schools would ensure the retention of the Catholic identity of the Catholic teachers and schools and safeguard the future of Catholic schools. The parity in salary with other state-funded schools was a just reward for the existing Catholic teachers and made teaching more attractive to Catholic lay people.¹⁰⁹

The training of Catholic female teachers was further enhanced with the opening of St Margaret’s College in Craiglockhart , Edinburgh, in 1920.¹¹⁰ The National Committee for the Training of Teachers was set up in 1920, and Notre Dame and St Margaret’s College were incorporated into a national system of teacher training in 1920 (Notre Dame) and 1922 (St Margaret’s).¹¹¹ There did remain issues with the training of Catholic men for teaching. As has been stated above, opportunities for male candidates opened up at Jordanhill and other Colleges in Scotland, but their training as Catholic teachers was not as well integrated as the training of Catholic female teachers.

The transfer of Catholic schools, however, was slower than might be imagined, for various reasons.¹¹² There was some anxiety that some of the ad hoc education authorities might exhibit anti-Catholic sentiments to the detriment of the Catholic schools.¹¹³ This prompted the initial reaction, notably by the Archdiocese of Glasgow, to lease the schools rather than sell. The Diocese of Argyll and the Isles was the exception and they chose to sell three of their seven schools.¹¹⁴ At that time, the influential Archdiocese of Glasgow was much larger than the current Archdiocese and covered an extensive and heavily populated area that incorporated Lanarkshire, Dunbartonshire, Renfrewshire and North Ayrshire. Treble notes that in the early 1900s around three-quarters of all Catholic children educated in a Catholic elementary school were located within the boundaries of the Archdiocese of Glasgow.¹¹⁵

The Archdiocese of Glasgow used the rental from leases on schools to support the establishment of post-primary institutions, but new elementary schools would have to be initially funded by the parishes.¹¹⁶ Sections 18 (7) and 18 (8) of the 1918 Act, which referred to the transfer of future schools and the responsibility for building new schools, were tested in cases such as the debate about the extension or new building for St Mary’s, Whifflet in the early 1920s and the transfer of the Catholic school in Bonnybridge in the late 1920s.¹¹⁷ One of the catalysts for the transfer in the large and influential Archdiocese of Glasgow was economic. The deep depression which beset industrial Lanarkshire and other parts of the West of Scotland had a marked effect on family incomes. The local parishes experienced contracting income and were unable to meet the mortgage payments on the local school. In 1928, the process of selling the Catholic schools to local authorities was commenced. Once this process had started it would not, and could not, be rescinded.¹¹⁸

Concluding Remarks

The history of the establishment, growth and development of Catholic schools from the late eighteenth century onwards is complex and, as has been seen, there were many challenges and obstacles to be overcome. The role of male and female religious and lay teachers was crucial to the success of Catholic schools prior to the Education (Scotland) Act, 1918. Many of their lives were characterised by a burning sense of Christian vocation, determination, commitment and service to the poor. There is a strong sense that their efforts were consistently selfless and on many occasions heroic. The Education (Scotland) Act, 1918 is rightly understood to be a key moment in the history of state-funded Catholic schooling in Scotland. Nevertheless, it still has to be understood in context, as part of a process that preceded the Act and that continued after the Act. This settlement of state funding for denominational schools in the 1918 Act was to be unique in terms of the United Kingdom and other parts of Europe. The eventual integration of the majority of Catholic schools would mean that, in time, the educational provision available to the Catholic community would be vastly improved in terms of school buildings, qualified teachers and resources. This was of enormous benefit to the Catholic community and, as levels of numeracy and literacy and general education would rise in the Catholic community, this would help to create a more educated community that could contribute to the future of Scotland.