The history of education in Wales spans from the period of Roman rule to the present day. Early forms of formal education were church or privately run and available to only a small segment of the population. In the 17th and 18th centuries significant efforts were made, mainly by charitable causes, to expand access to basic education. In the 19th century a state education system developed. By the end of the century, education had become free and compulsory for children aged 5 to 12 years. Further increases in the school leaving age and the development of a system of secondary schools led by the mid-20th century to universal secondary education—separate secondary schools for students of different academic abilities ended by 1980.
Education has been conducted in English, Welsh and historically Latin. In the 19th century Welsh was often repressed by schools. In the 20th century the language gradually gained a more prominent role in the education system. In the 21st century all pupils under the age of 16 are taught Welsh as a subject, and a minority of schools use Welsh as the main language of instruction. The first university in Wales was founded in 1872, though Welsh students had previously received higher education elsewhere or in other kinds of institutions. In the late 20th century the numbers enrolling in university increased sharply. As of 2021 almost a third of people over 16 have a university-level education.
Before 1701
The Roman province of Britannia (which included modern-day Wales) is generally considered to have had relatively low levels of literacy, by the standards of the Roman Empire, and there is little record of formal education. In the period after Roman withdrawal from Great Britain literacy in what is today Wales was largely restricted to the clergy. For most people the wide range of skills and knowledge needed for the work they did was passed orally from one generation to the next. Bards played a significant role in maintaining cultural memory. Throughout much of the Middle Ages even the highest-ranking members of the lay population could often go without formal education, though this steadily changed. The vocational education of the period, seven-year apprenticeships, was controlled by the guilds. Aristocratic children could receive their education through private tuition, but those aiming for a career in the Church would usually attend grammar schools generally linked to cathedrals. These schools gave a classical education based on the trivium and the quadrivium. The impact of the Black Death and the Glyndŵr rebellion harmed the Welsh elite's prospects for education, but there was a steady expansion throughout the rest of the 15th century. In the 16th and 17th centuries, several new grammar schools were established to cater to growing demand for formal education among people in skilled occupations and commerce. Teaching was always conducted in a single room and the norm was only one schoolmaster. Schools frequently included accommodation for the master, usher (assistant teacher) and sometimes boarding pupils. The grammar schools were all boys' schools. They catered to a varied age range. The emphasis of instruction was on Latin and less often Ancient Greek. Teaching was conducted through recitation and dictation; the birch was used to punish both bad behaviour and poor academic progress. Fees were usually expected; some boys could receive scholarships that covered the cost of fees but not materials.
Alongside the grammar schools, there were a small number of schools providing elementary education. There were also a variety of other more informal ways that some children may have received some basic education. However, for the vast majority of the population in the 16th and much of the 17th century, formal education was unattainable. In the early 17th century around 20% of people in Wales were literate in Welsh or English. Historians Gareth Elwyn Jones and Gordon Wynne Roderick argue that the peasantry generally was not interested in literacy as it held little practical advantage for them. After the Reformation, the growing Puritan movement became concerned about poor levels of literacy. A 1650 Actpassed by Oliver Cromwell's governmentappointed a commission that established sixty schools in Wales. These schools disappeared after the Restoration. In the early 1670s, clergyman Thomas Gouge began to preach in Wales; by 1675 he had established 87 schools which were attended by a total of 2225 children. They closed after he died in 1681. The Society for the Promotion of Christian Knowledge (SPCK) was founded in 1699 with similar aims. Little formal education was available for girls during this period; some might have attended elementary schools and others from more well-off families were tutored at home.
1701–1870
18th century
In the early 18th century, many charity schools were established with the support of the SPCK, but later foundings tended to be associated with the "circulating [travelling] school movement" which originated in Wales. The second group catered for both children and adults. 96 SPCK schools were established by 1714. They emphasised practical training, moral and religious education as well as practical support for poorer pupils. The circulating schools were developed by Griffith Jones, a priest in the Church of England. The schools only taught the ability to read and used temporary accommodation. Jones received donations from various patrons, many of whom were English as well as Welsh. Around half the Welsh population attended circulating schools during the middle decades of the 18th century. Sunday schools developed from the 1780s onwards. Early Sunday schools tended to admit adults as well as children. In Wales, they were generally nonconformist and often associated with the Methodist revival. Welsh Sunday Schools tended to focus on religion and reading, avoiding the wider secular education sometimes taught at Sunday Schools elsewhere. 79 endowments for elementary schools in Wales were made by individuals between 1700 and 1800. A number of commercially-run schools aimed at the working classes and organised by people of the same social background also existed.
There was a certain degree of decline in grammar schools during this period. Some of them disappeared or declined into elementary schools. There was an expansion in the teaching of non-classical subjects in grammar schools, which seems to have often particularly benefited the wealthiest pupils.
Early to mid-19th century
In the early 19th century the British and Foreign School Society (which was Nonconformist) and the National Society for Promoting Religious Education (which was Anglican) were founded. These organisations began to establish "voluntary schools". The schools attempted to maximise the children taught by using the monitorial system with older, more able pupils passing on information from their teacher to the other children. Another form of elementary education available in this period were works schools run by industrialists for the education of the children of their workers. While school participation rates in the early- to mid-19th century are somewhat hard to assess, a lower proportion of the population were enrolled in day schools in Wales than in England or Scotland. Sunday schools were often used as a substitute for full-time schooling. Literacy rates were also lower.
From 1833 the voluntary schools began to receive government funding. In 1839 the Committee of the Privy Council on Education (CCE) was formed which conducted state inspections of schools receiving grants in England and Wales for the first time. Early inspection reports give a mixed impression of schools in Wales. In 1847 the curriculum at day schools was often limited to reading, writing, arithmetic and religion. Some schools taught a wider range of subjects such as vocal music, grammar, drawing, geography and the history of England. The Newcastle Commission led to the introduction of the Revised Code of 1862. The code introduced a system of payment by results, with grants given based on pupils' knowledge of the three Rs and attendance. In the 1860s there was growing political pressure in England and Wales for a significant intervention in the elementary education system. At the end of the 1860s, there were school places for 60% of school-aged children in Wales, but with significant geographical variations. In Merthyr Tydfil places were available for only 22%.
Secondary education provision during this period was very limited in Wales. In the late 1860s, 28 boys' grammar schools with combined pupil numbers of 1,100 existed in Wales. Meanwhile, girls were especially poorly catered for. Two endowed girls' schools had been established in 1860 and another was founded in 1878. There were several private secondary schools for girls and boys. Some provided good quality education, but most were mediocre.
1870–1939
The Elementary Education Act 1870 (33 & 34 Vict. c. 75) required school boards run by locally elected officials to be established in areas where there were "insufficient places in efficient voluntary schools" to run additional schools. The boards were allowed but not required to make education compulsory. A power that was extended to other districts in 1876. Compulsory education was introduced for 5- to 10-year-olds across England and Wales by the Elementary Education Act 1880 (43 & 44 Vict. c. 23). 10- to 13-year-olds could leave school once they had reached a certain level of academic performance. Attendance was made free in 1891, the minimum school leaving age was increased to 11 in 1893 and 12 in 1899. Compulsory education was also extended to children who were deaf, blind or had other physical disabilities in the 1890s.
Some school boards were very active in expanding school provision. Many new schools were built by the boards over the thirty years after their introduction; the overall number of schools more than doubled. Although certain rural school boards were described as being of low standard, sectarian and inactive. At the time of the Elementary Education Act 1870, many school buildings were of poor quality, lacking proper facilities and healthy conditions. The Education department pushed for improvements. The elementary education system in Wales during this period closely resembled that of England. Both in what it taught and how it was administered. The payment-by-results scheme encouraged an emphasis on rote learning and teaching to the test. Although the curriculum steadily expanded with payments available to schools for results in history, geography, science, domestic science, metalwork and woodwork. Topics such as needlework and cookery were added to the curriculum for girls. Schools experienced various difficulties, but offered a basic education for almost all children.