The Education Act of 1892

### Description

First piece of legislation to make school attendance compulsory between the ages of 11 and 17; suggested that families who could not afford school to teach their children at home

The **Education Act of 1892** was signed into law by the British Ministry of Magic, making school attendance compulsory for all pupils aged eleven to seventeen for the first time in the history of Wizarding Britain. It followed the Education Act of 1872 and predated the Education Act of 1918.

For families that could not afford tuition to an institution such as Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, they became required by law to teach their children at home; this requirement of home-taught education, however, failed to be fully enforced until much later, when there became a need for the Education Act of 1918.

## History

#### 1872 Education Act

The 1872 Education Act stood as the very first piece of legislation to deal specifically with the provision of education in Wizarding Britain. Most importantly, it demonstrated a commitment to provision on a national scale.

The Education Act of 1872 allowed institutions such as Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry to carry on unchanged, but established a 'school board' to manage the school in areas where it was needed. The Hogwarts Board of Governors consisted of locally elected body which drew their funding from the local rate, determined by the number of pupils that were paying tuition.

The issue of making education compulsory for children had not been previously settled by the Education Act of 1872, which predated the Education Act of 1892 by nearly twenty years.

#### Lead-up to the Decision

One shortfall of the 1872 Education Act was that it did not properly address the poorer families that could not afford tuition to a magical school or the materials that having such a privilege required. The 1892 Education Act was proposed in order to make home-schooling a requirement for those that could not attend a prestigious institution such as Hogwarts: meant to incentivise families into paying forward into their institution, the Hogwarts Board of Governors created by the 1872 act cut a deal with members of the Wizengamot.

#### 1892 Education Act

The Education Act of 1892 was signed into law under Minister for Magic Faris Spavin. The act itself did not carry many arguments as opposed to other laws signed at the time, and the 1892 education act was passed very quickly, capturing a wide majority's support.

## Known Contents

The Education Act of 1892 made school attendance compulsory for all pupils aged eleven to seventeen for the first time in the history of Wizarding Britain. If a family could not afford to send their child to a magical institution, they were now required by this law to teach their children at home.

## Shortfalls

The regulation of home-schooled children was not strongly enforced following the introduction of this act. The quality of a home-taught education depended on the knowledge of a child's own parents, and because many witches and wizards tended to specalise in one trade or another, homeschooling amongst the emerging middle class at the time varied.

The Wizarding World had remained relatively feudal even after the introduction of the Statute of Secrecy: as a consequence of this, many children were taught to follow their parent's trade to survive. For the children of the lower classes, this meant that they were at an almost immediate disadvantage. Many poorer families simply taught their children what they could but were otherwise unable to provide knowledge of certain kinds of magics.

Some, mainly the largest and poorest of families, simply ignored the order. Many wizarding children worked, some even finding work with muggles in places like factories or dustyards, and these families depended on the money earned by their children to make it by. This left little time for education.

## Succession

The Education Act of 1892 was eventually replaced by the Education Act of 1918, taking in these shortfalls that the Act of 1892 had failed to address.