c. 75), commonly known as Forster's Education Act, set the framework for schooling of all children between the ages of 5 and 12 in England and Wales.

[6] The law was drafted by William Forster, a Liberal MP, and it was introduced on 17 February 1870 after campaigning by the National Education League, although not entirely to their requirements.

However, like many grassroots Liberals, he opposed the bill because it was open to the possibility of subsidising Church of England schools with local ratepayers' money.

It also came about due to demands for reform from industrialists, who feared that Britain's competitive status in world trade, manufacture and improvement was being threatened by the lack of an effective education system.

The churches were funded by the state with public money to provide education for the poor and did not want to lose that influence on youth.

A bill was eventually introduced in the 1870 session although Gladstone was at least as concerned about the abolition of University Tests at the same time.

[11] Local authorities were required to make returns of the number of children in their area and existing educational provision.

Section 74 of the Act empowered boards to create a by-law and to table it before Parliament to make attendance compulsory unless there was an excuse, such as sickness, living more than three miles from a school or having been certified as reaching a certain standard of education.

The individual schools continued to be eligible for an annual government grant calculated on the basis of the inspection ('payment by results').

As a compromise, William Cowper-Temple (pronounced "Cooper-Temple"), a Liberal MP, proposed for religious teaching in the new state schools to be non-denominational and so restricted in practice to learning the Bible and a few hymns.

A large conference was held at Manchester in 1872 to lead resistance to the section, and one of the campaigners was the Birmingham politician Joseph Chamberlain, who emerged as a national figure for the first time.

[11] The resulting splits (some education campaigners, including Chamberlain, stood for Parliament as independent candidates) helped to cost the Liberals the 1874 election.

[citation needed] The act required that every child should be taught in a reasonable building led by a qualified head teacher.

Town boards tended to be more rigorous in their provisions, and by 1890, some had special facilities for gymnastics, art and crafts and domestic science.

There were ongoing political clashes between the vested interests of Church, private schools and the National Education League followers.

However, with the simple mathematics and English that they were acquiring, factory owners now had workers who could read and make measurements.

[19][20] The Act established the foundations of English elementary education although it was not taken up in all areas and would be more firmly enforced through later reforms.

[citation needed] This was a weekly magazine which took the form of a mini-encyclopedia of information to appeal to the new generations of young readers.

The new system was co-ordinated nationally by the Scotch Education Department with the curriculum emphasising the teaching of reading, writing, and arithmetic (the three ‘Rs’).

The early 2000s rock band The Cooper Temple Clause was named after the provision familiar to generations of history students.