Adult education in the United Kingdom

Adult schools in the United Kingdom were first formed in 1798 to teach working people to read—and, if they wished, to write. Arithmetic was considered an unsuitable subject on their day of rest. In their heyday, Adult Schools had over one hundred thousand members around the country: the groups affiliated to County Unions and, in 1899, the 'National Adult School Union' was founded.

Adult education grew in the United Kingdom in the 20th century as an outreach of the university education that Balliol College, Oxford provided, the legacy of Benjamin Jowett.^[1] Soon after Sandie Lindsay, 1st Baron Lindsay of Birker, the Scottish academic and peer, arrived at the College in 1906, he was 'drawn into this movement of Adult Education' and 'remained deeply committed to it all his life.'^[1][2] Adult education was then 'an exciting field'^[3] because of Albert Mansbridge having brought together two elements of it to make 'a new force from the combination'.^[3] One of the elements was 'the movement of the universities to extend their teaching and offer it to the many large centres of population which had then no university, and to the great majority of the citizens of the country who had no hope of getting a university education.'^[3] The other element was 'a grass-roots movement consisting of the working-class organisations which provided education for its members.'^[4]

In 1965 the 'National Adult School Organisation' (NASO), an advocacy group for adult education in the United Kingdom was chartered.^[5] 'NASO' was a voluntary organisation with about 80 groups across England.^[6] It closed in 2010.^[7]