Provincial Board of Education
The 1872 Public School Act of British Columbia established a Board of Education consisting of "six fit and proper persons" appointed by the Lieutenant-Governor in Council (i.e. by the cabinet).
The provincial Board of Education set out the curricula of the public schools; reviewed and approved textbooks; examined, certified and appointed school teachers; determined teachers' salaries; and established Rules and Regulations for the Management of the schools.
The provincial Board of Education consisted of:
- Alfred John Langley (Victoria pharmacist)
- Robert Williams (former principal of the [private] Collegiate School, Victoria)
- Alexander Munro (Chief Factor of the Hudson's Bay Company)
- Edgar Marvin (Victoria merchant)
- Montague William Tyrwhitt-Drake (Victoria barrister)
- Dr. William Fraser Tolmie (retired Hudson's Bay Company official and former chairman of the colonial Board of General Education)
The Superintendent of Education, John Jessop, served as ex officio secretary of the Board.
The Board first convened in May 1872. It held its last meeting on 12 August 1878, when members resigned en masse to protest interference and indifference by the provincial government.
