ABSTRACT
In the years before 1939 the provision of technical education was somewhat piecemeal and the overall pattern was the outcome of local interest or, in a good many places, of lack of interest. During 1935 a survey was undertaken of accommodation provided for technical and art education throughout England and Wales. This indicated that accommodation was generally poor, especially by comparison with that in the United States and Western Europe. It was thought that more than 300 major building projects were needed at a cost of about £12,000,000 to correct this situation. The Board drew the attention of LEAs to the need for improvement at the beginning of 1936.[ 1 ] All aspects of technical education — technical and art colleges, evening institutes, day continuation schools, junior technical and junior art schools — were grouped administratively as the responsibility of the technical branch at the Board. Locally Part II authorities (counties and county boroughs) had legal authority to provide the various forms of technical education. These powers were permissive, there was no statutory obligation as there was with elementary education, and expenditure by authorities attracted grant at the rate of 50 per cent.
