The Education Act 1696 (c. 26) was an act of the Parliament of Scotland that ordered locally funded, church-supervised schools to be established in every parish in Scotland.

The Act for Settling of Schools stated that for every parish without a school and paid schoolmaster[1] The ongoing Episcopalian-Presbyterian power struggle had been decided, so school supervision henceforth would be by presbyteries (as per the Presbyterian view; the Episcopalian view was supervision by bishops).

The act was effective in establishing schools and fostering education throughout the Protestant areas of Scotland, and would remain the basis for Scottish education until the reforms of 1872, although a later act, [2] the Parochial Schools (Scotland) Act 1803 (43 Geo.

The act was not effective elsewhere, as it was used only as a tool in an effort to wipe out Gaelic (the obliteration of the Highlands language was a stated goal of the Act of Privy Council dated 10 December 1616).

That government policy towards the Highlanders was not different at the time of this act is exemplified by the contemporary "Act and remit in favour of the synod of Argyll" of 12 July 1695, which authorised military action to collect assessments made for the "erecting of English schools for rooting out of the Irish language, and other pious uses".