ABSTRACT
In 1939, the broad basis of the State educational system was still that provided by the Education Acts of 1870 and 1902, though, in detail, the situation was one of considerable diversity and confusion. Many State- educated children were still attending elementary schools catering for all ages from 5 to 14. The 1944 Education Act, known as the Butler Act because it was piloted through all its stages by R. A. Butler, then President of the Board of Education, was the most complex Act of its kind. It provided for the raising of the school-leaving age to 15 on 1 April 1945, or not later than two years thereafter. The most difficult administrative problem was the position of those schools, most of them elementary Church schools, which received financial assistance from the State and were therefore subject to varying degrees of control by the local authorities.
