Arthur Balfour Debates Education Policy - a Three page Manuscript Policy Document from the Year that Balfour became Prime Minister

Fascinating document written by the soon-to-be Prime Minister setting out the alternatives for what would be known as the Balfour Education Act. Writing on a three sides of a small bifolium, blind-embossed with the House of Commons crest on the first leaf, scarred to the final page where it has been removed from an album page, the Conservative leader sets out his 'Alternatives. (1) Existing system: - Voluntary stansard No coordination between Primary school and secondary. (2) Act adopted. School bds abolished. Voluntary Schools saved. Education co-ordinated. (3) School Bd preserved as at present....' On this third alternative Balfour sets out the 'necessary consequences' which involve a twin-track system of oversight of Board and Voluntary Schools. Within a month of writing this document in March 1902 Balfour brought his bill before Parliament and a couple of months later was Prime Minister. In the short-term the Balfour Act proved disastrouse for his party which lost the 1906 general election but it set the pattern for elementary education over the next half century in Britain.