Public Schools Act 1868
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The Public Schools Act 1868 was passed by the UK Parliament to regulate nine major English boys' schools. In the era that the act was passed, the schools to which it applied educated the majority of the sons of the British upper class. To some extent, this is still the case today, although the number of schools calling themselves public schools has greatly increased, and independent schools in general operate a far more inclusive policy to their admissions and some have become co-educational during the past 20 years.
The act was the result of the report of the Clarendon Commission, a Royal Commission on Public Schools which sat from 1861 to 1864, and investigated conditions and abuses which had grown up over the centuries at nine, prominent, nominally charitable schools:
- Charterhouse School
- Eton College
- Harrow School (and affiliated under its name, Harrow's day school John Lyon School)
- Merchant Taylors' School
- Rugby School
- Shrewsbury School
- St Paul's School
- Westminster School
- Winchester College
The Act removed these schools from any direct jurisdiction of the government, granting them independence over their administration and establishing a board of governors for each school. The act also led to the relaxation of the curriculum, away from the erstwhile Classics-based curriculum, to a broader academic scope of studies. Following the use in the Act of the term "Public school" to distinguish the above schools, many other schools not covered by the Act thence sought to associate themselves with this description and it is now the conventional term for any independent senior school in the United Kingdom.
The Public Schools Act was revised and slightly modified in 1998.
