Catalogue description Ministry of Education: Central Advisory Council for Education (Wales): Minutes and Papers

The Central Advisory Council for Education (Wales) was created in the wake of the Education Act 1944 (Butler Act). Along with the Central Advisory Council for Education (England), it was created to advise the Secretary of State for Education, usually on subjects referred to them by local education authorities and district education committees that were also created under the 1944 Education Act. Overseeing the Council in Wales was the Ministry of Education, Welsh Department that was based in Cardiff. The membership of the Central Advisory Councils for Education would change from one reference to another.

Pieces 3 and 4 concern the first report of the Central Advisory Council for Education (Wales) 'to be concerned with a general survey of primary education'. The Committee of the report 'Primary Education in Wales' (1967) was chaired by Professor Charles Gittins for the Department of Education and Science and can be regarded as a landmark document for primary education in Wales: ensuring that primary education in Wales retained its own national identity. The report reflected the explicit aspirations of a small nation with its own cultural heritage, language and specific demographic considerations, promoted Welsh language in schools. It also recommended the reorganisation of small primary schools into larger amalgamated area schools with a minimum of 150 pupils.

The report 'Children and their Primary Schools' (Plowden Report) 1967 addressed similar primary educational issues for England.

In 2004 National Assembly for Wales