Board of Education, University Branch, and Ministry of Education, Teachers Branch:...

Board of Education, University Branch, and Ministry of Education, Teachers Branch, teachers' training and supply files concerned with the approval of arrangements made by Local Education Authorities, including the Isle of Man, for the preliminary education and training of intending teachers with reports on training and supply provisions.

The files contain material connected with the continued recognition of Pupil Teacher Centres and with the special problems of pupil teachers in rural areas. Papers earlier than 1924 have not survived except for some staff returns of teachers and teachers under training in public elementary schools in Wales for the period 1912 to 1915.

The series includes some earlier papers which have survived for the period 1912-1915; these are staff returns of teachers and teachers under training in Public Elementary Schools in Wales.

In county and county borough order in England and Wales

The related 'general' or policy files have suffered much destruction and the Local Education Authority series of files concerned with the training of intending teachers prior to 1924 have been destroyed.

• Board of Education, University Branch, 1910-1944
• Ministry of Education, Teachers Branch, 1944-1961

Topics

Education

The Board of Education's policy in respect of the pupil and student teacher systems was reviewed by the Departmental Committee on the Training of Teachers, 1925 and revised Regulations for the Training of Teachers were introduced in the following year. The regulations recognised for grant purposes the work in connection with the training of teachers conducted by Local Authorities for higher education and called for the continuous full-time education in secondary schools of students up to the age of eighteen, prior to admission to training colleges.

The board were prepared, however, in accordance with the circumstances set out in their Circular 1377 (June 4, 1926) to recognise the temporary continuance of arrangements made by Local Education Authorities for the preliminary education and training of intending teachers under such conditions as were approved in the past.

The number of authorities seeking temporary continuance of these arrangements gradually diminished and although prolonged by the circumstances of the 1939-1945 war, reference to the Board ceased in 1949.

Candidates for recognition as student teachers had received continuous education up to the age of seventeen at a secondary school and qualified by examination for admission to a training college, whilst pupil teachers continued their education after the age of sixteen at a Pupil Teacher Centre. The provision of suitable instruction for pupil teachers in rural areas offered special problems which were met, in part, by instruction and supervision by the headmaster of the elementary school in the particular area.