| AdminHistory | The Elementary Education Sub-Committee was founded in April 1903 as one of the six standing sub-committees initially appointed by the Education Committee to undertake its work in the various areas of education provision. As for all standing sub-committees, the Chairman of the Education Committee was ex-officio a member of the Elementary Education Sub-Committee.
In accordance with the 1902 Education Act, the Elementary Education Sub-Committee adopted from the outset an equal policy of treatment of the Council and Voluntary Schools. The duties of the Elementary Education Sub-Committee were outlined at the first meeting. The committee was to recommend to the Education Committee persons for appointment as teachers in Council Schools, as Managers of Voluntary Schools, as Superintendents and Inspectors of Council Schools and Voluntary Schools and as District School Managers; to approve the appointment or dismissal of teachers of Voluntary Schools; to make recommendations on the scales of teaching staff in Council and Voluntary Schools and on the salaries of teaching staff in Council Schools; to receive and act upon the reports of the District School Managers; to consider HM Inspectors’ Reports on Council and Voluntary Schools; to offer recommendations on the management of Council Schools and the control of secular instruction in Voluntary Schools; to control the operation of the School Savings Banks in Council Schools; and to arrange for the examination of candidates for the post of Pupil Teacher in Voluntary Schools when there were more candidates than vacancies. Instruction given initially in the public elementary schools was generally directed by codes issued by the Board of Education and included reading, handwriting, arithmetic, drawing, geography, history and music.
The Education (Provision of Meals) Act of 1906 saw the Education Committee take responsibility for the provision of meals to poorer children attending public elementary schools. The future development of the scheme was entrusted to the Attendance, Finance and General Purposes Sub-Committee (see BCC/1/BH/7) until 1927, when there was a redistribution of responsibilities between the main standing sub-committees and the work was transferred to the Elementary Education Sub-Committee, who in turn remitted it to the Domestic Subjects Sub-Committee until 1932 (see BCC/1/BH/2/3). Reports on meal provision, returns on the number of free meals supplied and development of the Free Meals Service are consequently recorded in these minute books from 1927 within the Domestic Subjects Sub-Committee reports, and from 1932 - 1945 within the records of the Elementary Education Sub-Committee. As the Education Act of 1944 required all local education authorities to provide meals in all classes, responsibility for the School Meals Service and School Canteens, as the Free Meals Centres were now known, was referred to the Finance and General Purposes Sub-Committee from 1945 (see BCC/1/BH/15).
The work of the Elementary Education Sub-Committee was given further impetus with the passing of the Education Act of 1918. This Act required local authorities to submit schemes to the Board of Education in London showing a commitment to progressive development. The scheme submitted by the Birmingham Education Committee in 1920 emphasised the need for a revised curriculum and to strengthen the relationship between education and the commercial life of the city, and resulted in a great expansion in the numbers of elementary schools. Teaching spaces were increased in size and in many cases the teaching of subjects such as woodwork and domestic science were transferred to the schools and away from separate handicraft centres in the city (see BCC/1/BH/2/3 Domestic Subjects Sub-Committee minutes).
The internal organisation of the education system was addressed following the 'Hadow Report' of 1926, which had recommended some form of post primary education for all children between the ages of 11 - 14 years. Primary education was considered finished at the age of 11 plus years, after which a second stage began, ending at the age of 14 -15 plus. Birmingham had already made provision in schools on the new estates in the Stetchford and Small Heath districts for the separation of age groups and the development of 'senior' elementary education. Once the Hadow recommendations were published, all new schools on the new housing estates in Birmingham were planned along the separation of age groups, and gradually rebuilding work brought the older Council Schools into line with the new internal reorganisation of the education system.
The Education Act of 1944 ended the overlapping system of elemtary and higher education, introducing a public education divided into primary education (up to 11 - 12 years), secondary education (from 11, 12 years to 15, 16 or 18 years) and further education (post 18 years). On 1 April 1945 the sub-committee was renamed the Primary Education Sub-Committee, and new orders of reference were formulated. All matters concerning the education of children up to the age of 11 - 12 years in what had been the public elementary schools were referred to the Primary Education Sub-Committee. However, where these schools had separate senior departments, these became recognised as separate secondary schools and were now the responsibility of the Secondary Education Sub-Committee (see BCC/1/BH/3), as all other types of secondary schools, junior technical, junior commercial and junior art schools. With the separation of primary and secondary educational groups the reports and recommendations of the District School Managers (see BCC/1/BH/8, BCC/1/BH/9 and BCC/1/BH/11) were forwarded to either the Primary Education Sub-Committee or to the Secondary Education Sub-Committee as appropriate rather than as formerly to the Elementary Education Sub-Committee.
Welfare responsibilities were also a feature of the work of the Elementary Education Sub-Committee and its successor committee. Under the Adoption of Children Act, 1926 the Education Committee acted as guardian ad litem in cases which were heard at the Juvenile or County Courts, reporting to the appropriate court the facts of each application for adoption and protecting the interests of a child pending a decision. The Children and Young Persons Act of 1933 further extended the powers and involvement of the Education Committee with regard to the protection of children and young people. Responsibilities included guardianship of neglected children sent from the Juvenile Courts, custody of children needing care and protection, and the supervision of children at work or engaged in street trading. It was not until the Childen Act of 1948 that the Education Committee’s work in relation to the welfare of children and young people was transferred to the newly constituted Children’s Committee, as set out in the provisions of the Act (see BCC/1/CT).
The sub-committee remained operational until 1971, when the Education Committee decided to replace the Primary Education Sub-Committee and the Secondary Education Sub-Committee by a single Schools Sub-Committee (see BCC/1/BH/22). |