Elizabethan education

• Elizabethan education


  During Elizabeth's reign, education slowly became more important
• Attitudes towards education in Elizabethan England

  • No national system of education
  • Purpose was to help people prepare for their expected roles in life, focused on practical skills and possibly basic literacy
  • Only an estimated 15-20% of the population could read and write
  • Very few children actually went to school and all schools had fees
  • View was that only the rich needed to attend
  • No need to provide formal education for the vast majority, especially the labouring classes
• Parish schools (up to age 10)


  • Set up locally by the Church and run by the clergy
  • Taught basic skills to the children of yeoman farmers and craftsmen
• Private tutors


  • Delivered education privately to members of the gentry who often received their education in the household of a noble family
• By the early 1500s, philosophers called Humanists were arguing that education was valuable and not merely a way of preparing people for a role in life


  Educational opportunities gradually improved during Elizabeth's reign
• Protestants argued that people ought to be able to study the scriptures

  This required people to be able to read, boosting literacy
• Growth of the printing press


  Books became less expensive, giving people more opportunities to read
• Growth of trade in the Elizabethan era

  Required ordinary people to be able to read, write and understand mathematics to record transactions properly, encouraging more people to become literate
• Grammar schools (for boys aged 10 to 14)


  • Provided an education independently of the Church and charged fees, although scholarships were available for poorer families
  • Attended by the children of the gentry, merchants, yeoman farmers and craftsmen
  • Boys were taught the Bible, debating, Latin, French, Greek and philosophy
• Petty schools (up to age 10)

  • Ran privately from people's homes
  • Attended by children of the gentry, merchants, yeoman farmers and craftsmen
• Universities (ages 16 to 18/20)

  • In Elizabethan England there were two universities - Oxford and Cambridge
  • Studied geometry, music, astronomy, philosophy, logic and rhetoric (persuasive speaking used in law), medicine, law and divinity
  • Highest possible university qualification was the doctorate
• Education for girls


  • Many girls received no formal education at all as it was felt they would not need it
  • Girls from better off families attended Dame Schools run by wealthy women in their homes
  • Wealthy girls had private tutors
• Changes in education, 1558-88


  • New grammar schools meant children were now educated independently of the Church
  • Scholarships allowed people from poorer backgrounds to receive an education
  • Literacy improved, especially in the towns, due to the printing press, parish schools and the need to read the scriptures