Education Department and successors: Office of Special Inquiries and Reports and...

ED 121

1871-1980

Files of the Office of Special Inquiries and Reports and of its successors, the Department of Intelligence and Public Relations (1935-1945), the Information and External Relations Branch (1945-1949) which subsequently subdivided into the Information and General Branch and the External Relations Branch concerning international educational policy.

Most of the surviving files before 1932 relate to international conferences and committees, overseas appointments and the interchange of teachers. The nineteenth century papers concern the organisation of the work of the Office of Special Inquiries and Reports and the formation of the departmental library.

Papers of the Second World War relate to the Conference of Allied Ministers of Education (1942-1944), which led to the establishment of the United Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO).

Post-war files cover all areas of educational policy and information which contain an international aspect. They deal with the department's relationship with a number of international bodies, including the European Union, the Council of Europe, UNESCO, and the British Commonwealth, and UK organisations with international responsibilities including the Central Bureau for Educational Visits and Exchanges, the Army Education Services and the British Council.

There are also papers of the Interdepartmental Committee on the Teaching of English Overseas; the Committee on Educational Facilities within the Commonwealth; the Commonwealth Education Conferences 1959, 1962 and 1964; the Wheare Committee on Children and the Cinema, and the subsequent working party; and of various international conferences and committees arranged under the aegis of the Council of Europe.

Other matters of interest after 1951 are the inspection and maintenance of British schools in the Suez Canal zone (until the Suez crisis of 1956), the interchange and exchange of students and teachers with overseas countries, and the transfer of the Imperial Institute in London (renamed Commonwealth Institute in 1958) to new premises.

Also included are files dealing with educational matters in the Channel Islands.

The subject files have been successively prefixed SIR, IPR, IER and INF and ER.

Papers in this series dated 1871-1944 are arranged by subject under codes. Post-1944 papers are listed in file number order.

For papers of the meetings of the CBEVE see FB 2

For records relating to Marshall scholarships see HR

See also Records of the Inspectorate

ER file series, INF file series, IER file series, IPR file series

Public Record(s)

English

• Board of Education, Department of Intelligence and Public Relations, 1935-1944
• Board of Education, Office of Special Inquiries and Reports, 1899-1935
• Department of Education and Science, Arts, International and External Relations Branch, 1966-1970
• Department of Education and Science, External Relations and General Branch, 1970-1972
• Department of Education and Science, External Relations Branch, 1964-1966
• Department of Education and Science, External Relations Branch, 1972-1975
• Department of Education and Science, Schools Branch 3, 1975-1992
• Department of Education and Science, Science and International Relations Branch, 1977-1980
• Education Department, 1856-1899
• Education Department, Office of Special Inquiries and Reports, 1895-1899
• Ministry of Education, External Relations Branch, 1949-1964
• Ministry of Education, Information and External Relations Branch, 1945-1949

1200 files and volumes

Subject to 30 year closure unless otherwise stated

Topics

Canals and river transport

International

Photography and film

Army

Europe and Russia

Conflict

Aid and development

Children

Middle East

Education

Operations, battles and campaigns

Files before 1932 have suffered much destruction .

Among the voluntary bodies grant aided by the Ministry of Education was the Council for the Promotion of Field Studies (known after 1955 as the Field Studies Council) which was established in 1943 with the aim of developing and disseminating new teaching methods, primarily for use in schools, and the National Foundation for Educational Research, founded in 1945 to promote and co-ordinate research in England and Wales.

In 1943 the Ministry of Education embarked on a programme of experimental visual aids, making educational films and visual units on various subjects in conjunction with the Ministry of Information and several independent film companies. In addition the inspectorate made a number of films in the 1950s for its own use.