Board of Education: Schemes under the 1918 and 1921 Education Acts, General Files

Board of Education files dealing with general policy governing the preparation and submission by Local Education Authorities, and approval by the Board of Education of schemes showing how such authorities proposed to discharge their responsibilities for the progressive development and comprehensive organization of education under the Education Acts 1918 and 1921.

The files contain correspondence, reports of office committees, draft and copy memoranda, circulars and parliamentary answers, and statistics.

The files numbered J401 to J407 became a 'closed' series in 1943; no comparable current series is maintained.

The list follows the numbered sequence of the files.

For files relating to further education schemes see ED 46

Subsequent papers to J401 to J407 would appear under a specific title on current 'General' or 'Area' files. A set of the Education Board's circulars and administrative memoranda is available in the Department for Education and Employment Library. See also:

Elementary Branch

Accountant General's Department and Finance Branch

Topics

Education

Estimates of capital expenditure related to the Local Education Authorities' programmes of educational development were submitted to the Board of Education.

The Government's economy measures of 1925, expressed in the Board of Education's circular 1371, threatened to alter and reduce the education grant and substitute a 'block grant' system of grants. The proposal was dropped as an outcome of national protests and the circular withdrawn.

Following the National Economy Act of 1931, circular 1413 issued by the board was designed to secure economies estimated at about £7,000,000 in a full year. These "cuts" were restored during the period 1934-1935.

The problems of administrative procedure were met by the issue of administrative memoranda to Local Education Authorities and a series of internal procedure instructions. These minutes and memoranda ranged from the approval of schemes, sites and buildings, loan sanction, to the cost of secondary school equipment and the recognition of private schools as efficient but not for the payment of grant.