Welsh Intermediate Education Act 1889
The Welsh Intermediate Education Act 1889 (52 & 53 Vict c 40) was an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. Background. Elementary education had been compulsory in Wales, as in the rest of the United Kingdom, since the introduction of the Education Act in 1870. The Act required that all children attended school until the age of ten. As a result of that Act, school boards had been created to provide primary level education for all children. Following the success of the 1870 Act, reformers and educationists in Wales turned their attention to the  next level of education. Conception. The UK's 1880 Gladstone government appointed Henry Bruce, 1st Baron Aberdare to chair a committee to study the state of intermediate and higher education in Wales. The committee recommendations were published in the Aberdare Report of 1881. The committee's two recommendations relating to intermediate education were: that existing grammar schools should be extended; and that new government-funded schools should be established where needed. These recommendations were the catalyst for the passage through Parliament of the "Welsh Intermediate Education Act 1889". The Act received royal assent on 12 August 1889. In the Act , its purpose is described thus: "The purpose of this Act is to make further provision for the intermediate and technical education of the inhabitants of Wales and the county of Monmouth". Effect. The Act required the counties and county boroughs of Wales and the county of Monmouth to provide intermediate schools and provide technical education. To this end, the school boards were abolished and in each county a joint education committee was put in place. The initial duty of these committees was to prepare plans for intermediate and technical education to be provided in their areas. By 1902 Wales had  95 intermediate schools, and over 10,000 pupils. However there was hardly anything specifically Welsh about the education they provided. According to the historian John Davies, 'they slavishly imitated the ethos and the curriculum of the English grammar schools.' They also ignored the intentions of the act by neglecting subjects relevant to the community and the local economy. Replacement. The Act was repealed on the commencement of the Education Act 1944.