In the mid-19th century, visitors and reformers set up “ragged schools” in working-class districts to educate destitute children for free. These schools provided not just literacy but food, clothing, and sometimes shelter for the poorest youngsters. Many children who would otherwise work in factories or beg in the streets attended ragged schools. The London Ragged School Union coordinated efforts to ensure some education reached those shut out of formal schooling. Many Victorian reformers believed that education could lift people out of poverty, even if social mobility remained rare. The existence of ragged schools showed how Victorian society began facing its own inequalities. Eventually these efforts influenced national education reforms later in the century.
This fact highlights how class inequality shaped access to schooling.
It shows how grassroots reform foreshadowed formal educational systems available later to broader society.
Did you know ragged schools offered free meals and clothing along with lessons to destitute Victorian children?
[Wikipedia, turn0search22]