Public Schools Act 1868

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.