Elementary education, in its modern sense, began with the circulating
schools of Griffith Jones of Llanddowror in 1730. They were
exceedingly successful because the instruction was given in Welsh,
and they stopped after teaching 150,000 to read not because there was
no demand for them, but on account of a dispute about their
endowments in 1779, eighteen years after Griffith Jones' death. They
were followed by voluntary schools, very often kept by illiterate
teachers.
Between 1846 and 1848 two organisations--the Welsh Education
Committee and the Cambrian Society--were formed; and they developed,
respectively, the national schools and the British schools. After
the Education Act of 1870, the schools became voluntary or Board;
education gradually became compulsory and free; and in 1902 an
attempt was made to give the whole system a unity and to connect it
with the ordinary system of local government.
The training of teachers became a matter of the highest importance.
In 1846 a college for this purpose was established at Brecon, and
then removed to Swansea. From 1848 to 1862, colleges were
established at Carmarthen, Carnarvon, and Bangor.
The history of secondary education is longer. It was served, after
the dissolution of the monasteries, by endowed schools--like that of
the Friars at Bangor--and by proprietary schools.
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