Secondary education

===Universal education===
{{main|Universal education}}

There was considerable opposition to the idea that children of all classes should receive basic education, all the initiatives such as [[industrial school (Great Britain)|industrial school]]s and [[Sunday school]]s were initially a private or church initiative. With the [[Great Exhibition of 1851]], it became clear just how far behind the English education system had fallen. {{sfn|Gillard|2017|loc=Section 2}}

Three reports were commissioned to examine the education of upper, middle and labouring class children. The [[Clarendon Commission]] sought to improve the nine Great Public Schools. The [[Taunton Commission]] looked at the 782 endowed grammar schools (private and public). They found varying quality and a patchy geographical coverage, with two thirds of all towns not having any secondary school. There was no clear conception of the purpose of secondary education. There were only thirteen girls' schools and their tuition was superficial, unorganised and unscientific. They recommended a system of first-grade schools targeted at a leaving age of 18 as preparation for upper and upper-middle-class boys entering university, second-grade targeted at a leaving age of 16 for boys preparing for the army or the newer professions, and third-grade targeted at a leaving age of 14 for boys of small tenant farmers, small tradesmen, and superior artisans. This resulted in the [[Endowed Schools Act 1869]] which advocated that girls should enjoy the same education as boys.{{sfn|Gillard|2017|loc=Section 3}}

The [[Newcastle Commission]] inquired "into the state of public education in England and to consider and report what measures, if any, are required for the extension of sound and cheap elementary instruction to all classes of the people". It produced [[Newcastle Commission|1861 Newcastle Report]] and this led to the [[Elementary Education Act 1870]] ([[33 & 34 Vict.]] c. 75) (Forster Act).{{sfn|Gillard|2017|loc=Section 3}}

The school boards set up by the Elementary Education Act 1870 were stopped from providing secondary education by the [[Cockerton Judgement]] of 1899. The school leaving age at this time was 10. The Judgement prompted the [[Education Act 1902]] (Balfour Act). Compulsory education was extended to 12. The new [[local education authority|local education authorities]] (LEA)s that were formed from the school boards; started to open [[higher elementary school|higher grade elementary school]]s (ISCED Level2) or county schools to supplement the endowed grammar schools. These LEAs were allowed to build second-grade secondary schools that in the main became the future [[secondary modern school]]s. {{sfn|Gillard|2017|loc=Section 4}}

In the "''1904 Regulations for Secondary Schools''", the [[Board of Education (United Kingdom)|Board of Education]] determined that secondary schools should offer :
<blockquote>a four year subject-based course leading to a certificate in English language and literature, geography, history, a foreign language, mathematics, science, drawing, manual work, physical training, and, for girls, housewifery. {{sfn|Gillard|2017|loc=Section 4}}</blockquote>

The [[Education Act 1918]] (Fisher Act) extended [[Raising of school leaving age in England and Wales#The Fisher Act of 1918|compulsory full-time education to 14]], and recommended compulsory part-time education from 14 to 18.
The [[William Henry Hadow|Hadlow report, "Education the Adolescent"]] (1926) proposed that there should be a break point at eleven, establishing primary schools and secondary schools.{{sfn|Gillard|2017|loc=Section 4}}

The [[United Nations]], founded in 1947, was committed to education for all but the definition was difficult to formulate.
[[The Universal Declaration of Human Rights]] (1948) declared that elementary and fundamental education, which it did not define, was a right to be enjoyed by all. The [[Education Act 1944]] (Butler Act) made sweeping changes to the funding of state education using the tripartite system, but was not allowed to tackle private schools. It introduced the GCE 'O'level at 16, and the 'A' at 18, but only raised the school leaving age until 15, making the exam inaccessible to the majority. But one year of ISCED Level 3 (Upper) secondary education was mandatory and free. {{sfn|Gillard|2017|loc=Section 5}}

In 1972 the school leaving was raised to 16. The [[Education and Skills Act 2008]], when it came into force in the 2013 academic year, initially required participation in some form of education or training until the school year in which the child turned 17, followed by the age being raised to the young person's 18th birthday in 2015.<ref name="rpa_timeline">[http://media.education.gov.uk/assets/files/pdf/r/rpa%20timeline.pdf Raising the Participation Age – Timeline] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120904184538/https://media.education.gov.uk/assets/files/pdf/r/rpa%20timeline.pdf |date=2012-09-04 }} HMSO, 24 August 2012</ref> This was referred to as raising the "participation age"<ref name="rpa_myth_buster">[http://media.education.gov.uk/assets/files/pdf/r/130729%20mythbuster.pdf Raising the Participation Age (RPA) – Myth Buster for Young People]{{Dead link|date=February 2021 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }} HMSO, 29 July 2013</ref> to distinguish it from the school leaving age which remains at 16.<ref name="know-when-you-can-leave-school">[https://www.gov.uk/know-when-you-can-leave-school School leaving age] HMSO, 19 November 2014</ref> Thus the UK is following the ISCED Level 3 (Upper) secondary education guideline.