Public Schools Act 1868
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The Public Schools Act of 1868 was legislation passed by the British Parliament.
It was based on the report of the Clarendon Commission, a Royal Commission on Public Schools which ran from 1861 to 1864, and investigated nine schools:
- Charterhouse School
- Eton College
- Harrow School
- Merchant Taylors' School
- Rugby School
- Shrewsbury School
- St Paul's School
- Westminster School
- Winchester College
The Act removed the schools from the control of the government, granting them their independence and instating a board of governors for each, and led to the relaxation of the curriculum, from the previously-mandated, wholly Classics-based one, to a broader academic span.