TITLE:
From Voluntary Societies to Government: Social Control in Primary Education in Britain before and after the Industrial Revolution
AUTHORS:
Shulei Zang
KEYWORDS:
Social Control, Primary Education, Voluntary Societies, Government, Britain
JOURNAL NAME:
Open Journal of Political Science,
Vol.14 No.1,
January
19,
2024
ABSTRACT: The Industrial
Revolution caused great social changes, and primary education in Britain played
a positive role in social control during the transition period. For a long time
after the Industrial Revolution, the British government’s involvement in
education was limited, the lower class families were poor and could not afford
to pay the tuition fees, so the voluntary societies assumed the responsibility
of primary education in Britain; with the increase in the number of educated
people and the improvement of the quality of education, the voluntary societies
were unable to satisfy the national demand for education; in the middle of the nineteenth century, the
government intervened in the primary
education, and strengthened the control of the primary education through
the appropriation of funds and inspection, and the control of primary education
shifted from the hands of the voluntary associations to the government. Primary
education adapted to the needs of the stabilization and growth of the
industrial revolution in Britain, and social control drove the development of
primary education in Britain.