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
Education in the Age of Enlightenment separate boarding schools for both boys and girls. Her establishment of the Smolny Institute for Noble Girls in 1764 became the first higher learning institute for women in Europe; the following year Catherine would also establish the Novodevichii Institute, an all-female institute for the daughters of Russian commoners. Just as Frederick the Great would oversee the establishment of compulsory education in Prussia, Catherine would contribute to the evolution of women's education on the continent and allow for the further modernization of the Russian state during the Enlightenment. Education in the Age of Enlightenment The Age of Enlightenment dominated advanced thought