The story of post-war school building.

  • Great Britain. Ministry of Education
Date:
1957
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The story of post-war school building. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    time for preparatory work, the 1949 programme did two other things. It absorbed all the arrears from the operational and short term pro- grammes (many projects had not yet been started) and put them on a stricter yet simpler administrative basis, and it attempted to cover additional educational needs as far ahead as 1952. This was only possible because the necessary machinery of administration and controls was becoming more firmly established. It will be useful to turn for a moment to examine the nature of this machinery. Development plans 52. The ability to plan ahead was greatly facilitated by the prepara- tion of development plans. Section 11 of the Education Act, 1944, required every local education authority to estimate the immediate and prospective needs of the area as regards primary and secondary educa- tion, including arrangements for children under five years of age and for those who required special educational treatment. Each authority was also required to prepare a Development Plan, in a form determined by the Minister, saying how they proposed to meet their estimated needs. 53. In May, 1945, the Minister asked local authorities to put this work in hand. The task was immense, being nothing less than to re- examine, in the light of the Education Act, 1944, the whole structure and organisation of all the educational facilities for primary and second- ary education in a local authority’s area. Changes in the school popula- tion had to be estimated; consideration given to how existing schools would be affected, which schools would be discontinued, what additional new schools would be needed; proposals made about nursery schools, boarding arrangements and special educational treatment; arrangements worked out for free transport of pupils to and from school and for playing fields other than at individual schools; and finally, a time scale prepared for putting each part of the plan into effect and an estimate made of the capital expenditure involved. It was recognised that the plans would necessarily be more precise for work proposed for the first few years. 54. It is not surprising that the task took longer than was originally envisaged. In fact, by 1948, only about 20 development plans had been approved by the Minister. Nevertheless, in most authorities, including the counties, analysis and discussion of the problems were sufficiently far advanced for a clear picture at any rate of immediate priorities to be