The school in every parish
Scotland's tradition of universal education is one of its most distinctive and consequential legacies. The Education (Scotland) Act 1872 made education compulsory for all children between the ages of five and thirteen, creating a national system of school boards to enforce attendance. But Scotland's commitment to widespread education had roots stretching back centuries — the 1872 act was less a revolution than a codification of a tradition that already made Scotland one of the most literate nations in Europe.
The foundation was laid in 1496 when the Scottish Parliament passed an act requiring all barons and freeholders to send their eldest sons to grammar school. In 1616, the Privy Council ordered every parish to establish a school. The Education Act of 1633 empowered landowners to levy taxes for school maintenance. By 1696, an Act of Parliament required every parish in Scotland to have a school and a schoolmaster, funded by the local heritors. No other country in Europe had such a comprehensive system of publicly funded education.
The results were remarkable. By the 18th century, Scotland had literacy rates far exceeding those of England and most of continental Europe. The parish school system produced a population that could read, write, and calculate — providing the educated workforce that powered the Scottish Enlightenment and the Industrial Revolution. David Hume, Adam Smith, James Watt, Robert Burns — all were products of a culture that valued learning across every social class.
The 1872 act modernised this tradition by creating elected school boards, establishing government inspection, and making attendance compulsory. It was a Scottish act for Scottish schools — education in Scotland remained legally separate from the English system, as it had been since the Acts of Union in 1707. Scotland's educational tradition is not merely historical: the country's universities, its commitment to free university tuition, and its distinctive educational philosophy are direct descendants of the parish schools that made Scotland a nation of readers.