Compulsory education

Compulsory education refers to a period of education that is required of every person.

Antiquity to Medieval Era

Although Plato's The Republic is credited with having popularized the concept of compulsory education in Western intellectual thought, every parent in Judea since ancient times was required to teach their children at least informally. Over the centuries, as cities, towns and villages developed, a class of teachers called Rabbis evolved. According to the Talmud (tractate Bava Bathra 21a), which praises the sage Joshua ben Gamla with the institution of formal Jewish education in the 1st century AD, Ben Gamla instituted schools in every town and made formal education compulsory from the age of 6 or 7.

The Aztec Triple Alliance, which ruled from 1428 to 1521 in what is now central Mexico, is considered to be the first state to implement a system of universal compulsory education.

Early Modern Era

During the Reformation in 1524, Martin Luther advocated compulsory schooling so that all parishioners would be able to read the Bible themselves, and Palatinate-Zweibrücken passed accordant legislation in 1592, followed by Strasbourg—then a free city of the Holy Roman Empire— in 1598.

In Scotland, the Reformation prompted the establishment of a national compulsory system of education. The Education Act of 1496 had obliged the children of noblemen and freeholders to attend school, but the School Establishment Act of 1616 commanded every parish with the means to establish a school paid for by parishioners. The Parliament of Scotland confirmed this with the Education Act of 1633 and created a local land-based tax to provide the required funding. The required majority support of parishioners, however, provided a tax evasion loophole which heralded the Education Act of 1646. The turmoil of the age meant that in 1661 there was a temporary reversion to the less compulsory 1633 position. However, in 1696 a new Act re-established the compulsory provision of a school in every parish with a system of fines, sequestration, and direct government implementation as a means of enforcement where required.

Prussia implemented a modern compulsory system in 1763 which was widely recognised and copied. It was introduced by decree of Frederick the Great in 1763-5 and was later expanded in the 19th century. This provided a working model for other states to copy; the clearest example of direct copying is probably Japan in the period of the Meiji Restoration. Prussia introduced this model of education so as to produce more obedient soldiers and serfs.

In Austria, Hungary and in the Lands of the Bohemian Crown (Czech lands), mandatory primary education was introduced by Empress Maria Theresa in 1774.

Modern Era

United States

Compulsory school attendance based on the Prussian model gradually spread to other countries, reaching the American State of Massachusetts in 1852, and spreading to other states until, in 1917, Mississippi was the last state to enact a compulsory attendance law. Massachusetts had originally enacted the first compulsory education law in the American colonies in 1647. In 1852, the Massachusetts General Court passed a law requiring every town to create and operate a grammar school. Fines were imposed on parents who did not send their children to school and the government took the power to take children away from their parents and apprentice them to others if government officials decided that the parents were "unfit to have the children educated properly".

Compulsory education was not part of early American society; which relied instead on church-run private schools that mostly charged fees for tuition. The spread of compulsory attendance in the Massachusetts tradition throughout America, especially for Native Americans, has been credited to General Richard Henry Pratt. Pratt used techniques developed on Native Americans in a prisoner of war camp in Fort Marion, Augustine, Florida, to force demographic minorities across America into government schools. His prototype was the Carlisle Indian Industrial School in Pennsylvania.

Europe

One of the last areas in Europe to adopt a compulsory system was England and Wales, where the Elementary Education Act of 1870 paved the way by establishing school boards to set up schools in any places that did not have adequate provision. Attendance was made compulsory until age 10 in 1880.

Variation in countries

Some kind of education is compulsory to all people in most countries, but different localities vary in how many years or grades of education they require. Due to population growth and the proliferation of compulsory education, UNESCO calculated in 2006 that over the subsequent 30 years more people would receive formal education than in all prior human history. It is possible in many countries for parents to provide education for children by homeschooling, although this is often monitored for adherence to national standards.

Country	Age Range	Notes
Australia	5-15	Waived if pursuing full-time employment or full-time education
Belgium	6-18
Canada	6-16	Except Ontario and New Brunswick: 6-18. Some provinces have exemptions at 14
China	6-15	Except Hong Kong: 12 years of compulsory education
Egypt	6-14
Finland	approx 7-15	Beginning age is negotiable ± 1 year. Ends after graduation from comprehensive school, or at least 9 years.
France	6-16
Germany	6-16	Varies slightly between states
Haiti	6-11	The Haitian Constitution mandates that education be free of charge. However, even public schools charge substantial fees. 80% of children to go to private schools.
Hungary	6-16
India	6-14	The Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Act in August 2009, made education free and compulsory for children between 6 and 14.
Indonesia	grades 1-9
Italy	6-16
Jamaica	5-16	Parents could faces charges of Child Neglect, if they prevent their children from going to school without valid reasons. Not enforced.
Malaysia	7-17
Mexico		Schooling is required through upper secondary school (Preparatoria).
Morocco	6-15
Poland	7-18	Polish law distinguishes between compulsory school (obowiązek szkolny) and compulsory education (obowiązek nauki).
Russia	11 years	Student may leave after age 15 with the approval of a parent and the local authority.
Slovenia	6-15
Singapore	6-14
Taiwan	7-15	Typical ages for 9 years of compulsory education. 12-year compulsory education starting from 2014.
United Kingdom	5-17	Will rise to 18 in 2015.
United States	about 6-17	Varies by state. Beginning age varies 5-8, ending age varies 15-18. Some states allow early leave with parental approval.

Criticism

Compulsory education has been criticized on various grounds:

• The belief that it encroaches on the rights of children
• The belief that it encroaches on the rights of parents
• The belief that, historically, compulsory education is not guided by altruism
• The belief that it implicitly teaches authoritarianism
• The belief that the variety of children's individual growth cannot be supported within an imposed structure

See also

• Education Index
• Public education
• Public school (government funded)
• Child Labor
• Homeschooling
• Unschooling
• Anti-schooling activism
• Raising Of School Leaving Age
• Workforce
• HSLDA
• Democratic education

Further reading

• Coleman, J. S., et al. (1966). Equality of Educational Opportunity. Washington: U.S. Government Printing Office.
• Dunlap, Knight. "Is Compulsory Education Justified?," The American Mercury, February 1929.
• Epstein, R. (2007). Let's abolish high school. Education Week. Retrieved April 18, 2007, from http://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2007/04/04/31epstein.h26.html
• Gatto, J. T. (2003). The Underground History of American Education. New York: The Oxford Village Press.
• Holt, J. (1974). Escape from childhood. In Noll, J.W. (Ed.), Taking Sides: Clashing Views on Educational Issues (pp. 25–29). Dubuque, IA: McGraw-Hill.
• Illich, I. (1970). Deschooling Society. New York: Harper & Row.
• O'Keeffe, D. (2004). Libertarian Alliance. Compulsory education: An oxymoron of modernity. Retrieved April 16, 2007, from http://www.libertarian.co.uk/lapubs/educn/educn036.htm
• Rothbard, M. (1978). Public and compulsory schooling. In For a New Liberty (chap. 7). Retrieved April 12, 2007, from http://www.mises.org/rothbard/newliberty6.asp
• Van Horn Melton, J. (1988). Absolutism and the Eighteenth-Century Origins of Compulsory Schooling in Prussia and Austria Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
• West, E. G. (1974). The economics of compulsion. In The Twelve-Year Sentence. Retrieved April 11, 2007, from http://www.ncl.ac.uk/egwest/pdfs/economics%20of%20compulsion.pdf
• http://www.nhliberty.org/bills/view/2011/HB542

External links

• The Principle and Practice of Compulsion in Education
• A discussion of compulsory education as a human right (Right to education Project)
• From enforced schooling to self-directed learning A survey and a critique of compulsory education.
• Why Education is Broken Author Isamu Fukui shares his thoughts on the educational system and why it doesn't work.