EDUCATION IN WALES
1847-1947
THE YEAR 1843 WAS IMPORTANT FOR WALES FOR MANY REASONS. IT witnessed the introduction of Sir James Graham's Factory Bill, the first publication of Yr Amserau and Y Cronicl, and a further outbreak of the Rebecca Riots. This outbreak, together with memories of the Chartist Riots in 1839, suggested to William Williams, M.P. for Coventry and a native of Llanpumpsaint, that something should be done to improve the education of the Welsh people. Like many other persons at that time, he attributed lawlessness to ignorance and thought that schools were cheaper to maintain than a police force or an army.
It should be borne in mind" he said in the House of Commons in 1846, "that an ill-educated and undisciplined population, like that existing amongst the mines in South Wales, is one that may be found most dangerous to the neighbourhood in which it dwells, and that a band of efficient schoolmasters is kept up at a much less expense than a body of police or soldiery."
Holding these views, he went on to move
That an humble address be presented to Her Majesty that She will be graciously pleased to direct an Inquiry to be made into the state of education in the Principality of Wales, especially into the means afforded to the labouring classes of acquiring a knowledge of the English language."
"Her Majesty", the young Queen Victoria (she was then only 27 years of age) accepted the proposal, and three Commissioners were appointed to undertake the task. The three were very able young men, J.C. Symons, R. R. W. Lingen and H. Vaughan Johnson, and James Kay Shuttleworth (the Secretary of the Committee of the Privy Council on Education) gave them clear and sensible instructions on their work. He pointed out that the object of their Commission was to ascertain "the existing number of schools of all descriptions for the education of the children of the labouring classes and of adults, the amount of attendance, the age of the scholars, the character of the instruction given" in order that the Government could consider what measures ought to be taken to improve the existing means of education in Wales. They were to explain their work to the trustees and managers of the schools, and whenever they had the means of forming a just estimate of the qualifications and attainments of the teachers, they were to give their opinion in such a way "as not to operate as a discouragement to humble but deserving men, who may have had few. opportunities of education." In some parts of the country, moreover,
