Education
Although Jersey entered the 21st century with an excellent education system, it was not always so. Until the 19th century, education was available only to a very few sons of affluent islanders, despite the best efforts of benefactors who sought to establish schools of quality centuries earlier. Gradually the situation improved and the story of how education developed is a fascinating one. Jerripedia users are invited to make their own contribution to this section. Could you write a history of your own school, or a biography of a teacher who made a major contribution to island education? Anyone with a contribution to make should click on User contributions in the left column to discover how to create and edit articles.
Schools
Aspects of education
- Education in Jersey 1770-1790
- A listing of academies and schools in 1833
- A history of Jersey education Part 1 (Before 1870)
- A history of Jersey education Part 2 (1870-1913)
- A history of Jersey education Part 3 (1913-1950)
- A history of Jersey education Part 4 (1950-1970
- Jersey schools in the late 18th century
- Education in the 1860s
- School names - French or English?
- Jersey's poor standard of French
Victoria College
Jersey's longest established and most influential school, Victoria College, opened in 1852, six years after the Royal Visit of Queen Victoria, after whom it is named. Today it is a fee-paying school, subsidised by Jersey taxpayers and a member of the Headmasters' Conference (public school). The school should have been founded a long time before it eventually opened if the States had acted in accordance with the wishes of 16th Century benefactor Laurens Baudains, who put up money for the establishment of a school in St Helier. Eventually the school fulfilled the banefactor's intentions by providing a succession of university students who would return to the island on completion of their education and play vital roles in its administration.
John Le Marquand
The man who is universally credited with the development of Jersey's post-Second World War education system from one which provided few opportunities for children over the age of 11 into something of which the island could be justly proud was Deputy, later Senator John Le Marquand. In the 1990s he wrote three lengthy articles for the Annual Bulletin of La Société Jersiaise in which he traced the development of education in the island from 1870 to 1970. They are reproduced in full in Jerripedia.
