The development of secondary education from 1902 to 1970 in the Borough of Bedford |
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| Abstract: | Summary Bedford in 1902 had an enormous advantage in the substantial provision made by the Harpur Trust. She has consequently been able to provide, through little effort of her own, excellent opportunities for selective secondary education for most of the century, especially when a meagre scholarship ladder was improved after the Great War and the opening of Pilgrim School ended a second lean spell in selective secondary education in the 1950s. However, concern for those with fewer financial or intellectual advantages has not been conspicuous; a central school was forced through because the Board demanded improvements in the school buildings, the rise in population more than anything else caused partial reorganization in 1937 and government pressure helped to produce a scheme for reorganization on comprehensive lines. Usually a Conservative M.P. sits for Bedford (Labour won narrow victories in 1945 and 1966) and this perhaps indicates the nature of the town's political attitudes. There has also been a habitual reliance on the Trust. These factors may account for the town's moderate concern for the child of average and below average ability. Finally in 1970 the Harpur Trust, which in the first half of the century was such a boon to the town in its efforts to develop secondary education, was proving a stumbling block to the reorganization of the Borough's schools; Sir William's gift now presented nearly insuperable problems to the development of a truly comprehensive system of secondary education and this, in the eyes of many, was once more to the detriment of the ordinary child. The provision of secondary schools in Bedford was for so long the pride of the town, but no longer seemed so splendid to many living in a more egalitarian educational climate. |
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