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 Scotland in the twentieth century in 1995 it became the Scottish Office Education and Industry Department. After devolution, in 1999 the new Scottish Executive set up a Scottish Education Department and an Enterprise, Transport and Lifelong Learning Department, which together took over its functions. The 1872 Education Act had established a system of elementary state education up until the age of 12, by taking over the schools of the Presbyterian churches and some charitable schools. The abolition of school fees in 1890 meant there was a state-funded, national system of compulsory, free, basic education with common examinations. From this point attention increasingly turned to secondary