Education in the Commonwealth (Cromwell the Great)

Basic and vocational education is provided by various kinds of free schools for boys and girls, apprenticeships, vocational academies, and grammar schools for boys.

Formal education is organized in grammar schools for boys, that are either independent or of a borough/burgh corporation, the former case more usual in Scotland than in England, Wales or Ireland. Grammar schools are usually financed and endowed by common act of charity by nobles, wealthy merchants and guilds; During the English Reformation in the 16th century, most cathedral schools were closed and replaced by new foundations funded from the dissolution of the monasteries.

Girls education was usually imparted by dame schools an early form of a private elementary school. They were usually taught by women and were often located in the home of the teacher. The establishments were quite varied—some function primarily as day care facilities overseen by illiterate women, while others provided their students with a good foundation in the basics.

In Scotland, besides grammar schools, was also established a network of parish schools in the Lowlands, but in the Highlands basic education was still lacking in many areas. Schools were supported by a combination of kirk funds, contributions from local heritors or burgh councils and parents that could pay. They were inspected by kirk sessions of local elders, which checked for the quality of teaching and doctrinal purity. There also existed unregulated private "adventure schools". These were often informally created by parents in agreement with unlicenced schoolmasters. These private schools were often necessary given the large populations and scale of some parishes. They were often tacitly accepted by the church and local authorities and are seen particularly important to girls and the children of the poor. For girls the most usual means of schooling were petty schools and sewing schools for girls or dame schools.

Vocational schools and modern grammar schools
As a result of the Commonwealth several reforms and types of schools were founded. New vocational academies began to open preparing students in religion, law, medicine, commerce, engineering, arts, crafts and armed services. The teaching was of secondary, higher or university level. This lead to the creation of modern grammar schools whose curricula included english, modern languages, mathematics and natural sciences. In time they became the entry level to academies. Most were endowed by guilds, merchants and boroughs/burghs. In Scotland they become the major kind of school by the early 17th century, displacing grammar schools and preparing, by giving also Greek and Latin, for the university and vocational academies.

The multitude of vocational academies and the need to license them prompted the need to establish some kind of register, the Council of State in the late 17th century formed a Committee on Education in charge of registering all private, guild, merchant, borough and confessional academies and the distribution of grants. Its visitors were in charge of inspecting finances and use of grants.

Universities
There are three universities in England, four in Scotland and one in Ireland. The english and irish universities follow the federated colleges system. Seminaries or divinity colleges, some associated to a university, provide the training and preparation for the ordination of clergy or for other ministry. The universities are the following: Of importances is Gresham College (1597) of London.
 * English universities: University of Oxford (founded 1116, Royal Charter 1248, 20 colleges and 2 private halls), University of Cambridge (founded 1209 Royal Charter 1231, 16 colleges) and University of Durham (founded 1656, Commonwealth Charter 1665, 4 colleges and free school)
 * Scottish universities: University of St Andrews (1410, Royal Charter 1413), University of Glasgow (1451), University of Aberdeen (1495), University of Edinburgh (1583),
 * University of Dublin (Royal Charter 1592, 3 colleges)

The colonies and dominions had the following institution granting higher grades
 * Harvard College (1636), administered by the President and Fellows of Harvard College (1650), associated with Congregationalist Puritans

The visitors of the universities are assigned the duties of reforming and regulating them. They can revise and reform statutes and the compliance to the toleration.