Talk: The Impact of Compulsory Education on the Long Island Estate

The Education (Scotland) Act of 1872 brought in compulsory education for all children in the country, aged between 5 and 13. Before the passage of the Act, education was offered on a voluntary basis by Church schools and other charitable organisations. Now, education became the responsibility of area School Boards. In South Uist and Barra the Boards were controlled by the factor, the farmers and other members of the establishment. Clashes were inevitable: the Bishop of Argyll and the Isles and his priests against the factor; the District Council, which paid from the rates for the building of new schools and for their running costs against Lady Gordon Cathcart, the principal ratepayer How South Uist came to have the highest rates in the UK and how the whole question of who was to pay for the education of  the children of South Uist ended up in Parliament.