Welsh Journals

SOCIAL CLASS, CURRICULUM AND THE CONCEPT OF RELEVANCE IN SECONDARY EDUCATION: INDUSTRIAL GLAMORGAN, 1889-1914 THE REPORT by the Committee on Intermediate and Higher Education, chaired by Lord Aberdare1 which appeared in 1881, was hailed as 'the Welsh educational charter'.2 Its proposals regarding secondary educa- tion, albeit somewhat modified, were enshrined in the Welsh Inter- mediate Education Act of 1889,3 following which joint education committees set up by county councils and county borough councils proceeded to produce local schemes for the establishment of inter- mediate schools. It was the intention that these schools should break with the classical tradition of the endowed grammar schools by adopt- ing a curriculum incorporating sciences and modern languages, and by offering some 'optional* practical and technical subjects. Such schools were quickly established amidst great enthusiasm; by 1903 there were ninety-six schools with a school population of 8,789 pupils. The schools were soon under attack, however; they were accused of emulat- ing the endowed grammar schools, of being too narrowly academic, of giving undue emphasis to examination passes and certificate successes, and of neglecting science and technical studies. By 1899 the Charity Commission was reporting that 'the salient feature of the schools is the predominance of the literary and scholastic over the technical and modern side of the curriculum'. The Commission expressed the urgent 1 Report of the Committee appointed to Inquire into the Condition of Intermediate and Higher Education in Wales and Monmouthshire (C.3047),1881. 2 L. W Evans, Studies in Welsh Education: Welsh Educational Structure and Admin- istration, 1880-1925 (Cardiff, 1974), p.13. 3 For a description and assessment of this Act, see 'The Welsh Intermediate Education Act 1889', History of Education, vol. 19, no. 3 (September 1990, Special issue) and O. E. Jones (ed.), The Welsh Intermediate Act: A Centenary Appraisal. (Welsh Office, 1990).