Education Authorities
Elected education authorities were established in every county and five named burghs under the Education (Scotland) Act 1918.[1] With the exception of the five burghs of Edinburgh, Glasgow, Aberdeen, Dundee and Leith, all burghs were included in the education areas covered by these new county wide education authorities. Leith and Edinburgh amalgamated in 1920.
The new education authorities were required to submit schemes for school management committees to the Scottish Education Department and then appoint these committees. The education authorities were required to develop schemes for adequate provision of education in their education area and set salary scales of teachers. They were also given powers to make arrangements for nursery schools, to contribute to recognised schools which they did not manage, to pay for pupils educated in another education area, and to prepare schemes for continuation classes, which could be delegated to the school management committees. They were also required to accept the transfer of voluntary schools, which in 1918 were mainly Roman Catholic schools.
The functions of the education authority were transferred to county councils and to the four counties of cities (Aberdeen, Dundee, Edinburgh and Glasgow) under the terms of the Local Authority (Scotland) Act, 1929.[2] The county councils and town councils of counties of cities were required to appoint education committees and this meant that separately elected education authorities therefore ceased to exist.
Records of education authorities are held by local authority archives services.
Compilers: SCAN contributors (2000) Editor: Elspeth Reid (2021)
Related Knowledge Base entries
School Management Committees
References
[1] Education (Scotland) Act 1918 (8 & 9 Geo. V c.48).
[2] Local Authority (Scotland) Act 1929 (19 & 20 Geo. V c.25) s.3.