# First Public Education Grants (1846)

URL: https://allhistories.com/barbados/timeline/1846-first-public-education-grants
Location: Barbados
Themes: main-event

Before emancipation, schooling in Barbados was largely in the hands of the Anglican Church, the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel and a handful of endowed schools such as Harrison's Free School and the Codrington grammar school. After 1834 the British government paid a temporary Negro Education Grant to support schools for former slaves, but this was being phased out in the 1840s. In 1846 the Barbados legislature voted its first state grant of £750 for education, and in 1850 it passed the island's first Education Act, which also raised the grant to secondary schools to £3,000 a year. Codrington College, under its principal Richard Rawle, began training elementary school teachers, and the Church continued to run most of the parish schools that received the money. These modest measures marked the start of public responsibility for schooling in Barbados. Over the following decades government grants expanded, culminating in the Education Act of 1878. The system laid the foundation for the high literacy rates for which Barbados later became known in the Caribbean. At this point in the timeline (1846–1850), the British monarch was Victoria (20 June 1837 – 22 January 1901); the Governor of Barbados and the Windward Islands was Sir Charles Edward Grey (1841–1846); the Governor of Barbados and the Windward Islands was Sir William Reid (1846–1848).

## Why it matters
It began public funding of schooling, the base of Barbados's later reputation for education.

Ruler at the Time: [Victoria](https://allhistories.com/barbados/rulers/victoria)

Governor of Barbados and the Windward Islands: Sir Charles Edward Grey
Governor of Barbados and the Windward Islands: Sir William Reid

## Sources
- [Wikipedia — Education in Barbados](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Education_in_Barbados)
- [Wikipedia — The Lodge School](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Lodge_School)
- [Encyclopaedia Britannica — Barbados education history](https://www.britannica.com/search?query=Barbados+education+history)
- [Barbados Museum & Historical Society](https://barbmuse.org.bb/)
- [Wikipedia — The Post-Emancipation Colony (period overview)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Barbados)