History
The idea for a regular section on education in The Times was first proposed in 1905 by J E G de Montmorency, a barrister and writer who later composed leader articles for The TES. The first issue of the monthly educational supplement appeared on September 6, 1910, opening with a witty weather forecast for the UK’s school systems. King George V had recently begun his reign, and the paper noted that “some great resettlement of the English school system seems likely to take place”.
Over its first decade, The TES established itself as a paper for teachers, though it was primarily aimed at those in private and grammar schools. However, it pressed for education reform from its early years, calling in 1913 for “Secondary Education for All”.
In 1914, The TES became a stand-alone publication, noting on the outbreak of the First World War that “every great war in the modern world has been followed by changes in education”. Two years afterwards - while the war still raged - the paper began to be published weekly. The TES later explained that “the decision to change into a weekly periodical was taken in order to lend the support of The Times more effectively to the movement for reform in education which culminated in the Fisher Reform Act of 1918”.
Notable editors of The TES included
- George Sydney Freeman, who was editor for its first 28 years
- Harold Dent, a progressive former schoolteacher who became acting editor in 1940. He put the newspaper together practically single-handedly during the Blitz. His editorials pressed for “total reform” of the education system, “based on a new conception of the place, status and function of education in a democratic State, not a patching and padding of the present system”. This attitude chimed with the radical thinking then going on within the Board of Education. Mr Dent had regular meetings with its president, Rab Butler, in the years building up to the 1944 Education Act.
The readership of The TES, once primarily private and grammar school teachers, broadened during the 20th century. During the 1970s, the paper became more supportive of comprehensives, when it had once defended grammars.
In the 1980s it became increasingly concerned that political reforms might overload or restrict teachers, particularly the launch of the national curriculum and league tables with the Education Reform Act 1988. Its then editor, Stuart Maclure, noted in 1985 that “the irony of the last 10 years, in which the politicians and industrialists have clamoured for reform and accused the educationists of blocking it, was not lost on anyone who cares to look back”.
When the newspaper reached its centenary in 2010, its editor Gerard Kelly, wrote: “If there is one phenomenal, outstanding, amazing development of the past century in this country, it has to be that education has liberated women in a way that was never anticipated by the most liberal of reformers, even by those far-sighted individuals on The TES in 1910”.
Read more about this topic: Times Educational Supplement
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