Catalogue description Board of Education, University Branch, and Ministry of Education, Teachers Branch: Local Education Authority, Teachers' Training and Supply Files

In county and county borough order in England and Wales

The Board of Education's policy in respect of the pupil and student teacher systems was reviewed by the Departmental Committee on the Training of Teachers, 1925 and revised Regulations for the Training of Teachers were introduced in the following year. The regulations recognised for grant purposes the work in connection with the training of teachers conducted by Local Authorities for higher education and called for the continuous full-time education in secondary schools of students up to the age of eighteen, prior to admission to training colleges.

The board were prepared, however, in accordance with the circumstances set out in their Circular 1377 (June 4, 1926) to recognise the temporary continuance of arrangements made by Local Education Authorities for the preliminary education and training of intending teachers under such conditions as were approved in the past.

The number of authorities seeking temporary continuance of these arrangements gradually diminished and although prolonged by the circumstances of the 1939-1945 war, reference to the Board ceased in 1949.

Candidates for recognition as student teachers had received continuous education up to the age of seventeen at a secondary school and qualified by examination for admission to a training college, whilst pupil teachers continued their education after the age of sixteen at a Pupil Teacher Centre. The provision of suitable instruction for pupil teachers in rural areas offered special problems which were met, in part, by instruction and supervision by the headmaster of the elementary school in the particular area.