From Voluntary Societies to Government: Social Control in Primary Education in Britain before and after the Industrial Revolution

The Industrial Revolution caused great social changes, and primary education in Britain played a positive role in social control during the transition period. For a long time after the Industrial Revolution, the British government’s involvement in education was limited, the lower class families were poor and could not afford to pay the tuition fees, so the voluntary societies assumed the responsibility of primary education in Britain; with the increase in the number of educated people and the improvement of the quality of education, the voluntary societies were unable to satisfy the national demand for education; in the middle of the nineteenth century, the government intervened in the primary education, and strengthened the control of the primary education through the appropriation of funds and inspection, and the control of primary education shifted from the hands of the voluntary associations to the government. Primary education adapted to the needs of the stabilization and growth of the industrial revolution in Britain, and social control drove the development of primary education in Britain.