<P> The grammar schools of the period can be categorised in three groups: the nine leading schools, seven of them boarding institutions which maintained the traditional curriculum of the classics, and mostly served' the aristocracy and the squirearchy'; most of the old endowed grammar schools serving a broad social base in their immediate localities which also stuck to the old curriculum; the grammar schools situated in the larger cities, serving the families of merchants and tradesmen who embraced change . </P> <P> During the 18th century their social base widened and their curriculum developed, particularly in mathematics and the natural sciences . But this was not universal education and was self - selecting by wealth The industrial revolution changed that . Industry required an educated workforce where all workers needed to have completed a basic education . In France, Louis XIV, wrestled the control of education from the Jesuits, Condorcet set up Collèges for universal lower secondary education throughout the country, then Napoleon set up a regulated system of Lycee . In England, Robert Peel's Factory Act of 1802 required an employer to provide instruction in reading, writing and arithmetic during at least the first four years of the seven years of apprenticeship . The state had accepted responsibility for the basic education of the poor . The provision of school places remained inadequate, so an Order in Council dated 10 April 1839 created the Committee of the Privy Council on Education . </P> <P> There was considerable opposition to the idea that children of all classes should receive basic education, all the initiatives such as industrial schools and Sunday schools were initially a private or church initiative . With the Great Exhibition of 1851, it became clear just how far behind the English education system had fallen . </P> <P> Three reports were commissioned to examine the education of upper, middle and labouring class children . The Clarendon Commission sought to improve the nine Great Public Schools . The Taunton Commission looked at the 782 endowed grammar schools (private and public). They found varying quality and a patchy geographical coverage, with two thirds of all towns not having any secondary school . There was no clear conception of the purpose of secondary education . There were only thirteen girls' schools and their tuition was superficial, unorganised and unscientific . They recommended a system of first - grade schools targeted at a leaving age of 18 as preparation for upper and upper - middle class boys entering university, second - grade targeted at a leaving age of 16 for boys preparing for the army or the newer professions, and third - grade targeted at a leaving age of 14 for boys of small tenant farmers, small tradesmen, and superior artisans . This resulted in the 1869 Endowed Schools Act which advocated that girls should enjoy the same education as boys . </P>

Revision of secondary school education as visualized in independent india