| AdminHistory | In accordance with the scheme approved by the Board of Education for the constitution of an Education Committee, the first Birmingham Education Committee was appointed on 6 April 1903. The committee consisted of 33 members comprising the Lord Mayor, eighteen members of the Council, four 'persons of experience in Education', and three women chosen by the Council. The remaining members were nominated by invited public bodies, namely the University of Birmingham, the Church Schools' Sub-Association for the Archdeaconry of Birmingham, the Birmingham Roman Catholic Diocesan Association, the Birmingham and Midland Institute, the Birmingham District Association of the National Union of Teachers, and the Birmingham Trades Council. The long standing member of the School Board, Councillor George H. Kendrick, was appointed Chairman of the Education Committee, which provided some form of continuity in the aims and work of the Birmingham School Board and the new Education Committee.
Meetings of the Education Committee were to be held on the last Friday of each month. The work of the committee was initially distributed between six standing sub-committees: the Elementary Education Sub-Committee, the Higher Education Sub-Committee, Technical Education and Evening Schools Sub-Committee, the Special Schools Sub-Committee, the Sites and Buildings Sub-Committee, and the Attendance, Finance and General Purposes Sub-Committee. Three committees of District School Managers were also appointed that year, with the schools divided into North, Central and South Districts.
The constitution of the Education Committee remained unchanged until the extension of the city boundaries in 1911, which necessitated an increase in committee membership from 33 to 52, and distribution of schools into six rather than three districts. Various Acts of Parliament passed by the Liberal government between 1906 - 1909 placed further social responsibilities on the committee, such as feeding, medical inspections, and hygiene. With the passing of the Education (Provision of School Meals) Act of 1906, the Education Committee took over the work of the Birmingham School Dinners Society, and in 1908, under the Education (Administrative Provisions) Act of 1907, introduced a system of medical inspection. A new Hygiene Sub-Committee was constituted in 1911.
The Education Act of 1918 heralded further developments as local authorities were required to submit schemes to the Board of Education in London demonstrating a commitment to progressive development. In the light of wartime experiences, the scheme submitted by Birmingham Education Committee in 1920 emphasised the need for a revised and extended curriculum, particularly in relation to higher educational provision, with a need for the committee to concern itself with the city's commercial outlook and juvenile employment, as well as other welfare issues.
The internal arrangement of the educational system and separation of age groups was addressed early in Birmingham. The Hadow Report of 1926, entitled 'The Education of the Adolescent', recommended some form of post primary education for all children between the ages of 11 - 14 years creating a single educational process in stages. However, even before the recommendation of the Hadow Report were published, Birmingham had already made provision in two new housing estates for the separation of age groups and the development of 'senior' elemenrary education. Once the Hadow recommendations were published, Birmingham furthered its own early efforts of reorganisation. All new schools built on Birmingham's new estates were planned along the separation of age groups, and gradual rebuilding work brought the older Council Schools into line with the new internal reorganisation of the system.
The Local Government Act of 1929 imposed additional welfare duties on the Education Committee, which included some work which had previously been the responsibility of the Boards of Guardians responsible for Aston, Birmingham and Kings Norton's Poor Law Unions (see GP AS, GP B, and GP KN). These responsibilities included the management of cottage homes and hostels, and the boarding out of children with foster parents, which it carried on until 1948.
The Children and Young Person's Act of 1933 also saw the administration of remand homes transferred to the Education Committee, with the Juvenile Employment and Welfare Sub-Committee appointing the Remand Homes Sub-Committee that year. The Moseley Road Remand Home for boys moved in 1941 to Fircroft College on Oaktree Lane, Bournville, and older boys were moved to Forhill House, Kings Norton, in 1947. 'The Limes' on Bristol Road was opened as a remand home for girls in 1944. With the passing of the 1933 Act, Industrial Schools became known as Approved Schools, and certified by the Home Office.
As a result of the initiatives the committee had taken during the 1920s and 1930s, it was well prepared for the Education Act of 1944, which ended the overlapping system of elementary and higher education and introduced a public educational system divided into three stages of primary education (to 11 - 12 years), secondary education (from 12 to 15, 16 or 18 years) and further education. With the passing of the 1944 Act all children were to pass from a primary stage at 11 - 12 years to a secondary stage which, under the committee's scheme for secondary education, was to be provided in secondary modern, secondary technical and secondary grammar schools. The junior technical, junior commercial and junior art schools were also reflected in the dissolution of the Elementary and Higher Education Sub-Committees in 1945, and the creation of the Primary Education Sub-Committee and the Secondary Education Sub-Committee.
With the passing of the Children Act of 1948, the newly created Children's Committee (see BCC/1/CT) took over the welfare functions previously belonging to the Education Committee, namely responsibility for cottage homes, hostels and boarding out of children, remand homes, Approved Schools, and the adoption of children, although the practical transfer of these responsibilities to the new committee did take some time. |