History of education in Sutherland
Background
In the Brigantian era, the system of education gradually transitioned from a familial-based system to tuition-based systems, however largely had eroded back to informal, familial structures at the time of the Viking settlements.
The earliest-known Sutherlander schools from the settler populations were associated with Messianist religious institutions. A number of abbeys and clausters began establishing schools for the studying of religious texts, as well as basic writing and literacy. Further schools were established over the following centuries; the Viking warlords commissioned a number of military schools for training children, while schools to teach Old Guthric as a prestige language or to read biblical texts, and "songuscole" (singing schools) were established for choirs in mediaeval churches. Viking kings increasingly viewed the non-military schools as frivolous or needless, and refused to exempt them from tax, reducing their presence notably in the 10th century, referred to as a "mini-literary dark age" by some modern scholars. Nevertheless, it took roughly two centuries of sparse, fractured education and a relatively illiterate populace (even for the time) for the settler state to begin to develop alongside its international peers for the time.
Middle Ages depiction of a learning institution, ~1070CE (right)
The mediaeval education system developed rapidly into a semi-formal system following the collapse of the Viking warlord class, and the rise of the aristocratic order under Æthelred the Steadfast. The destruction of the previous bureaucracy and state resulted in both an opportunity and an obstacle; Æthelred was forced initially to rely on inherited monastic literacy, and informal aristocratic counsel and advice, as well as retaining the "more competent" lawmakers from the time. A prolific writer of royal charters, he constructed a widespread legal and bureaucratic system of rules and order, while a series of Great Landsbooks (at first partial in 980, followed by two full sets in 988 and 1003-4) further created great demand for literate, competent interpreters, scribes, and educated advisors.
This resulted, in part, in the establishment of the first predecessor centres to the modern loresteads; the predecessor to the Lorestead of Westhampton (Old Atlish: Lærestede æf Westhāmtūn) was set up in 1001, followed by a further dozen or so in the decade after, while the aristocracy would increasingly give their children a formal liberal arts education as the norm. These centres of learning also began to teach a mixture of mathematics, logic, the sciences, statecraft, ethics, and theology, though seldom all at the same time, being largely specialised due to their small size. The consistent demand for literate officials to arbitrate, examine and manage records, and staff the travelling judicial courts, additional to the view amongst the aristocracy that a liberal arts education was critical to ascending in the court - which was, at the time, largely new.
St. Alfred's is a notable charity school, dating to the early Archibaldian era of the late 1400s (right)
This system of education was often fraught - the frontiers often lacked the ability to grant their aristocracy this baseline of education, leading to the prevailing view in Eamont and the Sound that the frontiers were brutish and "beneath" them, whilst the effectiveness of the mediaeval system of bureaucracy and education proved heavily reliant on the willingness of kings to both fund it over war (notably, nearly entirely disappearing in the reign of Leofryc I in his efforts to fund wars in the northeast), and to take part in lawmaking themselves. Despite this, the system enjoyed a baseline of continuity through the High Middle Ages, granting Sutherland a tradition of bureaucratic training and legal education. Meanwhile, the 11th-century decision by Æscwine I to order the translation of the Bible into Early Atlish - as a direct response to the election of an Antipope at Helgen and monastic reform at the time - resulted in a linguistic and education flourishing, as it encouraged the reading of the holy text in the vernacular. The late mediaeval period brought a more unstable monarchy with over a century of challenging claims and dynastic infighting, heavily fracturing this bureaucracy and weakening its continuity.
Meanwhile, in the early modern period, charity schools - usually associated with religious institutions or the Church as a whole - began to appear in an effort to teach the poor, or at least indicate that they were open to all regardless of religiosity, class, or social status. Archibald I extended this during the early Amendment period, instituting in the Free Loresteads Law of 1477 that there were to be a system of learning centres open to all for free, however this largely did not cause a transformation of society; poor children would still largely learn trades instead, as this would be a direct way to support their families, while the benefit of education was abstract and in some cases did not materialise. Nevertheless, literacy rates did slowly tick upwards in the 15th to 17th centuries, while regulations to support and regulate the trades and guilds at the time would also be passed. In 1666, Malthe II instituted a number of poor laws, including one that stipulated that "township" scholarships would be made available by apprenticeship schools, which were increasingly the reserve of more affluent boys. Meanwhile, the renaissance that had been enjoyed following the closure of the Wars of Harts and Swans once again stagnated into the 17th century, following the deposing of Godwin VI and instating of a new, more absolutist dynasty in the 1600s.
Early modern era and "groundlaying"
"Þe Scole", a depiction of a Sutherlander grundleȝnyngscole in 1818 (right)
Edmund V rose to the throne after the death of his authoritarian father Malcolm II at the nadir of the First Atinean War in 1749. Edmund ruled at the height of Sutherlander enlightened absolutism, and believed that the ruler was at the forefront a servant of the state and public, while maintaining the values of order and duty that had marked the conservative shift of the monarchy in the post-Ten Good Kings era of the 17th to early 18th century. Amongst other reforms, such as a rudimentary (and in some ways, partial) level of press freedoms and religious tolerance, and a strong view of legal reformation in the guise of Æthelred the Steadfast before him, he sought to make a break from the "weak, yet static" persona that Malcolm had developed amongst his detractors during his two decades of rule. One early way he managed this was through the refutation of the antisemitic decrees of his 17th century predecessors, who themselves had overturned a century or two of hostility to antisemitism.
Yohan Eldredsson was a noted educator and reformist in opposition to the apparent stasis in Sutherlander education in the 1700s in juxtaposition to increasingly rapid change as the agricultural and early industrial revolutions began, and his plans drew the attention of Franklin III. Thus, a generic Sutherlander primary education programme - unconventionally, funded through tax, although in practice the new schools were often funded on private or clerical initiative - was instituted in the Allschools Law 1754, requiring that children across Sutherland were educated from the ages of 5 through 10; this was extended to the age of 13 in 1777. This system, known in Atlish as
grundleȝnyng (lit. "ground-laying", translates roughly as "foundation") or its supplementary
grundleȝnyngscole, was a comprehensive five (then eight) year course of baseline skills like reading and writing, as well as music (largely to integrate the singing schools) and religious education; mathematics was initially optional for a fee, but was introduced as a formal part in 1777, partly to substitute much of the religious education that had been removed due to Edmund V's schism with the Church in 1773. The Church heavily resisted these secular schools, in part leading to the schism between Edmund and the Church, and formed its own parallel society of schools; these were amalgamated into the state system in the 1880s.
Secondary schools were also instituted, though less universally and less publicly, in the 1760s through 1780s; they gained friction from the lower classes, as they quickly became saturated with the more affluent boys of the realm. National testing, a national curriculum, and formal teacher training were also instituted through Edmund's reign; most notably, the
Cæmnyng (whose etymology is unknown, but is possibly from an Old Cumbric word for "stepping",
kanxsman) became the state exam for students at secondary level to take in order to enter the bureaucracy or universities, which remained the case until its partial reduction into a solely university-pipeline exam in the 1990s. A number of Chancellors developed the laws further, instituting for schools for girls (while not universal, and in many cases not even free), as well as secondary schools in the poorer or peripheral regions; this system was used as a key means to subdue the Atinean provinces seized in the late 18th century and 19th centuries from Atinea in the First and Second Atinean Wars.
While Edmund V did not live to see the
grundleȝnyng attain its full end result in the reign of his descendants Edmund VI and Frederyk IV, by the early-to-mid 19th century, the Sutherlander education system had developed into a world-leading institution, lifting Sutherland out of its relatively stagnant and in some ways mediaeval approach it had been burdened with until the 1700s. It had instituted free primary education (especially for the poorest), salaried professors and teachers taught institutionally, state funding to build further scholarly institutions and universities, curriculums instilling a strong national character, involvement of science and technology, and supervisions at the national level, and secular instruction in conjunction with optional but important religious education. The modern university system also was borne from this era, with many of the universities in Sutherland dating from the late 18th to very early 19th century. However, Edmund V's schism with the Church would develop into a centuries-long reignition of the schism between the Antipope and state/Crown in the 1000s-1400s, which had largely been paved over with the Amendment and alignment of the early modern Kings with the Amendist Church, creating intermittent periods of
Statsmenningsþræt (lit. State cultural quarrel, translated roughly as "National-cultural struggle"). The system suffered perenially from teacher shortages, as well as poor infrastructure outside the Horseshoe and Eamont, resulting in inequal outcomes; these inequities were largely ignored by the political elite, who were largely concentrated in the more adequately-provisioned provinces. Teachers in rural areas were often underqualified, and schools were forced routinely to combine multiple years due to low populations and low enrollment in these areas.
Revolution
The Sutheran Spring in the spring of 1829 (as pictured on right) resulted in major education reforms
Frederyk IV was a noted conservative, and in some ways repudiated the legacy of Edmund V, whilst also seeking to reignite the absolutism that he enjoyed. While at first upon his accession to the throne in 1821, following the death of Edmund VI, he appeared to appease the Church, and also to maintain existing institutions, his decrees became increasingly reliant on personal authority, bypassed the Almoot, and became unconvinced that the groundlaying education system was a fortuitous system of spending tax revenue. In 1823, he ends the universality of public education, instead making it "voluntary", while refusing to fund the training of further teachers or take responsibility for funding schools. Frederyk wrote in 1824 to his cousin, Alfred, that the system Edmund V created was "surplus to requirement", and "an unwieldy, inefficient, destabilising asset we must repair and renew". The introduction of more modern subjects, such as philosophy and civic history, was reversed; instead, Frederyk reintroduced religious education, and emphasised the "core" skills of literacy, numeracy, and theology. The secondary school system was deliberately made fee-paying, while loyalty oaths became commonplace at secondary institutions. Universities were largely preserved, but their character gradually shifted, with all university fellows required to be in holy orders again in 1824, after a 50-year absence of the rule. This undermined the system heavily; literacy stalled, while the inequity of the system became deplored publicly, being derided in satire. Meanwhile, Frederyk - paranoid of the Atinean populations uprising - began persecutions of Courantists, enabling him to use the school system as a means to control Atinean regions.
The Sutheran Spring in 1829 deposed Frederyk IV, following a series of unpopular liberal reforms, bad harvests, and repression of political Charterist movements, and instated the First Republic. Creating a Redery of State Instruction, the revolutionary government - especially before the Merry Frelsedom and instating of a liberal, republican, pluralistic government in 1834 - reignited the use of the public education system, but weaponised it heavily. Notably, the revolutionaries extended the public education system to girls. State funding of teachers and training was reinstated, and the system was made mandatory again, with secondary education also made mandatory from 1831, with science and technology woven even more into the teaching of children; the curriculum, meanwhile, was heavily curated, with regional identity crushed even further, anti-clericalism and aggressive secularisation replacing religious elements, and the history of the monarchy derided. The element of "history-as-propaganda" which existed in the 1830s gradually receded after the institution of plural democracy, however the model of education used in Sutherland remained heavily ideological and statist even compared to Edmund V's vision. Despite the entitlement of all Sutherlanders under 16 to a secondary education, this was not enforced until 1859 (and then unenforced again from 1874 to 1877), with many leaving at 13 to take part in the trades, especially as people moved to cities to work, in a liberal industrialising economy with still relatively rudimentary working rights. A legal duty was placed onto parents to take their children to schools and provide them with an education in the Education Law 1866.
The effect of the Orange Revolution in 1877 (named more for the rise of liberalism than a real, violent revolution) in Sutherland was relatively lighter on the effect to public education compared to the Sutheran Spring. The clause demanding mandatory secondary education was fully enforced, and anticlericalism again became a key theme of the curriculum, while measures were taken to ensure parents would not bring children out of school to enter work instead; these developed into modern anti-truancy laws over time, while the post-1868 state engaged in wider employment reform and the banning of child labour altogether under the age of 14. Meanwhile, the Science in Education Law 1863 proved controversial because of its inclusion of evolution sciences; religious parents began to move their children en masse to free schools, which the Amendist Church encouraged, resulting in further pillarisation in the 19th century Sutherlander society.
A republican-era school in Adelaide, west Sutherland, in 1883 (right)
The Amendist Church schools set up as a parallel to the state school system were taken into state control, while the state heavily increased the presence of literature and science in the curriculum, and expanded school boards, libraries, and university construction. Women were now finally given the ability to obtain university degrees, having only been permitted early and middle stage education until then, from the foundation of a number of women's only colleges at top Sutherlander universities. The initial carve-out, allowing school boards to pay for poor children's admissions to Amendist Church schools, proved so divisive that it cost the Liberals government in 1879, and is partially accredited for the rise of leftist electoral politics in the same election; the subsequent Nationalist government began the nationalisation of Amendist schools, allowing them some special leeway until the early 1900s secularism laws. In 1908, schools were established by the state for the blind and deaf; these would expand into the special needs programmes and schools in the modern day eventually.
Curriculums under the Godfred Roscow administration of Richeists were heavily adapted to weaponise the system. Girls were once again excluded, religious aspects were reintroduced (only to be dropped in 1923), and teachers were sacked en masse if they were viewed as disloyal to the nation. Roscow, who idolised Frederyk IV, aggressively removed modern science, philosophy, and nondenominational, secular education on religions, replacing it with a curriculum that matched his desire for duty to the nation above all else.
Modern education
Chair of the Board of Schools (1922-1927), then Reeve for Education (1927-1931), Alastair Broderyk (Labour, pictured on right) was a noted reformist and implemented Drake's "national planning" policy to the education sector
In 1925, the Labour government of Howell Drake inherited an education system stripped of much of its use, and infused with Richeist sentiment, as well as teachers who were examined on loyalty, not merit or skill.
The "þreyscolen" (three-schools) programme which Drake's Reeve for Learning, Gordon Þurling, implemented the following:
- "Forescolen" – preschool – from the ages of 2 to 5, optional, focussed on childcare and "enriching"
- "Fyrstscolen" – first schools – from the age of 5 (fyrstyere) to 9 (feowerþyere), concentrating on primary or foundational education;
- "Middlescolen" – middle schools – from the age of 9 (fifþyere) to 12 (sefenþyere), concentrating on intermediate education and with an emphasis on core skills;
- "Upperscolen" – upper schools – from the age of 12 (ayȝtþyere) to 16 (twelfþyere) or 18 (feowertenþydre), with three different types (trades, constitutive, academic) and the Cæmnyng exam at the end for university admission;
- Loresteads, whose education is split between undergraduate (typically, not exclusively, 3 year degrees) and postgraduate (dependent on sector).
The national curriculum was also reformed, to include greater emphasis on the other studies rather than maths and literacy, such as geography, history, and religious studies - the latter was made non-denominational when talking about Messianism, and also emphasised other religions in the Commonwealth, like Druidism, Shaddaism, and Taslim. The trade school system proved largely theoretical in practice; only 2-3% of schools constructed between the fall of Richeism in 1925, and the end of the 1940s with the Trade Schools Law 1949, were actually trade schools. Instead, constitutive schools largely displaced them, with many becoming renowned for having better technical education than the trades schools. Meanwhile, academic schools proved controversial due to the option of them being selective; these selective schools were largely the nationalised variants of the private schools operated by the remaining private institutions, and were a compromise to prevent circumvention of the law. There were divisions in Labour over the continuation of these selective schools, even if they were non-fee-paying, as they benefitted those who could provide tuition to their children for the 12+ exam: one junior minister at the time, Alfryk Wilbryht, commented that "the Labour party, absurdly, is introducing a class divide into its own public education programme". The school leaving age was set at 16, avoiding initial speculation that children would be allowed to avoid doing their upper school exams in order to seek employment from 15; Howell Drake noted at the time that "the opportunities of the working-class must be preserved, with no incentive to step back from those opportunities".
There was a trend of tug-of-war politics over academic schools, with their powers gradually (but inconsistently) reduced compared to the constitutive schools over time. However, some wapentakes and hundreds (local councils) encouraged their construction, viewing them as creating better opportunities and attracting the highest-level of pupils. The trades schools were turned into constitutive schools entirely in 1949; this created the groundwork for the eventual model of bifurcation that would last into the modern day, with constitutive schools being able to provide both vocational and academic pathways. A large number of universities were built inbetween the 1890s and 1940s, known as red brick ("redtild") universities for the distinctive colour of many of their buildings.
The Lorestead of Colne (pictured on right) is an example of a "redtild" university in Sutherland, built between the 1920s and 1940s
In the 1950s, the Future Generation Report 1951 created the benchmark for education reform. Corporal punishment was outlawed in schools, learning (particularly in first schools) transitioned away from rote learning and dictation and towards more interactive, child-friendly programmes, while standardised testing (as a rebuke to the academic selective schools, but more broadly to the "over-testing" of students) was broadly discouraged. Work experience programmes were opened for those in eleventh year, and the school leaving age was raised in part to 18 - it was now mandatory to take part in some form of part-time education, whether that be an apprenticeship, vocational education, training, or academic education towards attaining and taking the Cæmnyng. The first year of school was turned into a part-time year of education at "pre-school" level, an allocation of free childcare was legislated for in 1953, and the curriculum was reformed to become more well-rounded. Greater paths for contact between parents and schools were made during this time. The Report also advised that there was an underrepresentation of male teachers, although this issue was never fully rectified.
The Franklin Argall government (Labour) in the 1960s and 1970s disincentivised further from academic schools, viewing them as antithetical to the Labour party's education policies; they introduced a law in 1968, broadly asserting for wapentakes and hundreds to prevent further construction of academic schools (which was broadly adhered to), while a 1969 law demanding them to submit plans on their "full phasing-out" of academic schools by 1980 was largely kicked down the road, with the Byford-John Liberal administration that followed in 1975 largely disapplying the law. He also emphasised the need to reduce disparities in education; funding was modified to provide "premiums" to schools with high rates of poverty, and both local businesses and charities were helped to be involved in impoverished areas to improve links to communities, employment, and education opportunities more widely. Class sizes were reduced to a maximum of 30 in upper schools and 24 in first schools, while rural provision of education was targeted as a major inequity. Argall, while not banning the remaining private schools and those which had gradually popped up in the preceding decades, disapplied charitable status from them, resulting in their higher taxation; private tuition levels fell in the three decades after this change. He, and Byford-John as his successor, instituted for apprenticeship schemes (especially in aerospace, nuclear, oil/gas, power generation, and construction) to be expanded for 15-17 year olds, however the gradual deindustrialisation of the developed world in the 1970s to 2020s has reduced this programme's effectiveness. Despite this, rural education remained problematic; this resulted in some level of autonomy granted to more expansive and disconnected hundreds and wapentakes, in addition to state subsidies for teachers taking rural school jobs, but inequalities remain to some extent. The Liberal government of Malcolm Lamont reduced constitutive education spending in order to revitalise academic schools, and cut premiums to poorer areas, resulting in teachers' strikes in the industrial south in the 1980s; Westmorland schools were forced to reduce their teaching hours due to repeated walkouts and strikes, while simultaneously taking on the brunt of premium cuts. The Lamont premiership included new vocational schools as a revitalisation of trade schools, but this largely proved a flop, and was scrapped altogether when the financial crisis of 1988-90 stripped the government of funding to kickstart it.
The Open University (Openlorestead/OL) has been a key education-providing institution of Sutherland since its establishment in 1994 by Godfrey Eldredsson's Labour government
In 1993, the Eldredsson government of Nyarverth (Labour) introduced "baby boxes"; these, amongst other things such as clothes for newborns, thermometers, a towel, a changing mat, and a mattress/mattress-protector/fitted sheet set, included a number of books to read during the child's infancy, which were further expanded to include books sent on the child's birthday, every birthday, until they turned eight years of age. Repeated reforms were made to vocational education, however the academic pathway continued to be over-represented, while apprenticeships continued to make up fewer than three-percent of total employment at any time. Home education was heavily regulated and restricted, with regular check-ups and a set curriculum. The Open Lorestead was also set up in 1994, to encourage people who could not attend university due to full-time job commitments or other issues to gain their degree over time, which took off due to the internet in the 1990s and 2000s. Meanwhile, university tuition remained free for all, and grants were made available for maintenance and lodging. The Almeida (VDA) government in the early 2000s instituted reforms to reverse the ban on academic schools, to little avail. In 2005, Mitt Hawkins (Labour) introduced the Private Schools Law, which transitioned funding of private schools to the state sector; this banned private tuition fees, and means that in the modern day, most private schools are either regulated faith schools, or Waldorf schools. Free nursery was expanded, as was childcare, while maternity and parental leave was expanded to the current 480-day split 80% reimbursement (for first 400 days) system. He also introduced trust funds for all kids born on or after 2004, which included a 500 shilling (~$350) portfolio which appreciates at low risk. Education has also moved to become more flexible between the bifurcated paths; students are able to take on elective subjects from both vocational and academic pathways until they enter thirteenth year (16-17), due to the presence of constitutive schools.
The education sector, which is highly unionised even compared to other Sutherlander public sectors, went through significant periods of industrial action (2022 "Strike for Fair Pay" march in Averreth pictured on right)
In the 2010s and 2020s, most education issues have surrounded funding and expansion; after Tiago Bráz's "Hospitals and Schools" pledge, the education sector received record grants and funds in the 2011-2019 period (roughly 6% per year), while Frederyk Yemm's Liberal free school programmes to academise some schools from local government to charity/trust control were scrapped in 2012. The Crash caused the incoming Liberal-VDA government to stress debt control and fiscal responsibility; university maintenance grants were frozen for six years, while teachers' wages rose only 9% in real terms since 2018 to 2026, leading to industrial action such as strikes and walkouts which intensified during the housing welfare cuts controversy in 2025. Education spending increases slowed to 3.5% per year, but the incoming Labour government increased its budget to schools and education by 7.6%.
