Education (Scotland) Act 1872
The Education (Scotland) Act 1872 (35 & 36 Vict. c. 62) made  elementary education for all children between the ages of 5 and 13 mandatory in Scotland.The Act achieved a more thorough transfer of existing schools to a public system than the Elementary Education Act 1870 in England. It created popularly elected school boards which undertook a significant building programme. The Scottish Act remains controversial because it caused substantial harm to the Scottish Gaelic language. At the time it was criticised because it did not deal with secondary education and because it did too little to safeguard the tradition of the parish schools in Scotland.