Ragged school

Ragged schools were set up to provide free education to destitute children in 19th-century Britain. They were pioneered by philanthropic individuals such as John Pounds (1766–1839), who set up one of the first ragged schools in his home city of Portsmouth. The Ragged School Union, with the 7th earl of Shaftesbury as its president, was formed in 1844 to further Pounds’ aim: “to chase away ignorance, to relieve distress, and to teach the Gospel”. Soon most large towns had ragged schools.^[1]

But the idea of educating the poor was not without its critics, who feared that it might give the lower classes ideas above their station in life, or worse. The philanthropist and writer Hannah More (1745–1833), herself a teacher, was one such:^[2]

In many schools, I am assured, writing and accounts are taught on Sundays. This is a regular apprenticeship to sin. He who is taught arithmetic on a Sunday when a boy, will, when a man, open his shop on a Sunday.

Educational reform

The Education Act of 1870 finally acknowledged that education was a public service, and education boards were set up to establish new schools where the existing voluntary provisions were considered to be inadequate. There had long been an anomaly in that children living in workhouses
Establishment where the destitute in England and Wales received board and lodging in return for work. received free education, but there was no such provision for the “merely poor”.^[3]^[a]Free primary education for all children was not provided in the UK until 1918.^[4]

Following the 1870 Act, ragged schools merged with those set up by the new education boards, and by 1875 the process was almost complete. Lord Shaftesbury, president of the union, claimed that “the ragged schools, with very few exceptions, are extinct”, although there were almost a dozen left at that time, two of which remained operational until the early 20th century.^[5]

After 1870 the Ragged School Union switched its focus onto its Sunday schools.^[1] In 1887 its chairman observed that:^[6]

The number of children who came to our ragged schools unable to read previous to the Education Act, was very large. Now almost every child is able to read the Bible or the Testament.