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
Science education in England provides incentives for students to continue studying science subjects. Science is regarded as vital to the economic growth of the United Kingdom (UK). For students aged 16 years (the upper limit of compulsory "school age" in England, but not compulsory education as a whole) and over, there is no "compulsory" nationally organised science curriculum for all state/publicly funded education providers in England to follow, and individual providers can set their own content, although they often (and in the case of England's state/publicly funded post-16 schools and colleges have to) get their science (and indeed all) courses "accredited" or made "satisfactory"