Elementary Education Act 1870 further acts in 1876 ("the Sandon Act", which gave parents a legal obligation to ensure that their children were educated) and 1880 ("the Mundella Act") made attendance compulsory for children until they were 10 years old, with various exemptions. Many factory owners feared the removal of children as a source of cheap labour. However, with the simple mathematics and English they were acquiring, factory owners now had workers who could read and make measurements. Following continued campaigning by the National Education League, following the Elementary Education Act 1880, attendance to age 10 became compulsory everywhere in England and Wales. In
Raising of school leaving age Government (Ireland) Act 1898. However, there were many exemptions and enforcement was patchy. The Killanin Committee of 1918–19 documented the flaws in the system. The School Attendance Act, 1926 established a harder minimum of 14 years, controversially retaining a temporary exemption in spring and autumn for children over 12 working on the family farm. This exemption was extended in 1936 and expired in 1940. The 1926 Act also empowered the Minister for Education to raise the school leaving age to 15 or 16 for some or all children; though debated from the 1940s on, this was not invoked until 1972,