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Unemployment and the School-Leaving Age in Inter-War Britain

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  18 December 2008

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As would be expected, the emphasis in existing accounts of the debate over the appropriate school-leaving age in inter-war Britain has been predominantly educational. The important discussions relate to the parliamentary and administrative struggles over the relationship between elementary and secondary schooling, with all its implications for central-and local-government finance, to the conflicts over the nature of any extended educational provision in different types of school, and to the potential effects of such developments on class division within society.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © Internationaal Instituut voor Sociale Geschiedenis 1981

References

1 One of the best surveys is Simon, B., The Politics of Educational Reform 1920–1940 (London, 1974).Google Scholar

2 See Garside, W. R., “Juvenile Unemployment and Public Policy between the Wars”, in: Economic History Review, Second Series, XXX (1977).Google Scholar

3 Departmental Committee on Juvenile Education in Relation to Employment After the War, Final Report [Cd 8512](1917).

4 Juvenile Unemployment Committee Report, 15 December 1923. Cabinet Papers 27/228, Public Record Office, London.

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16 For further details see Garside, “Juvenile Unemployment and Public Policy”. loc. Cit.

17 In England and Wales births per 1,000 population rose from 18.5 in 1919 to 25.5 in 1920, falling to 22.4 in 1921. The equivalent figures for Scotland were 21.7, 28.1 and 25.2.

18 Ministry of Labour. Memorandum on the Shortage, Surplus and Redistribution of Juvenile Labour in England and Wales During the Years 1930–1938(1931): Ministry of Labour, National Advisory Council for Juvenile Employment (Scotland), Fifth Report: Supply of, Demand for and Redistribution of Juvenile Labour in Scotland During the Years 1932–1940 (1933).

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25 National Confederation of Employers' Organisations, The School Leaving Age, Treasury Papers 172/1739, Public Record Office. The estimates were based on the assumption that the number of juvenile posts available in industry remained at its 1934 level of 1,853,000.

26 National Confederation of Employers' Organisations, School Leaving Age. 25 July 1935, Board of Education Papers 24/1557, Public Record Office.

27 Cabinet Educational Policy Committee, Compulsory Education Beyond 14, June 1934, ibid., 24/1549 (my italics).

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30 For further details see Garside. “Juvenile Unemployment and Public Policy”.