Newfoundland School Society

The Newfoundland School Society (N.S.S) was established on June 30, 1823 by a merchant named Samuel Codner. Codner first came to Newfoundland in 1788 and periodically traveled back to England where he was influenced by the Evangelical Revival occurring there during this time. He was inspired to help Christians in neglected British colonies by the Premier of England, Lord Liverpool in 1821. Knowing the dire conditions in Newfoundland, he formed The Society for Educating the Poor of Newfoundland which had its first annual meeting at the London Coffee House on July 13, 1824. It was the ability of the N.S.S. to deal with the difficult conditions in Newfoundland that led to their great success on the Island. The first N.S.S. school was set up in St. John's in 1823 and within two years, the demand spread rapidly to rural Newfoundland where petitions and applications for schools began pouring out. By 1825, five schoolmasters had been sent between St. John’s, Quidi Vidi, Harbour Grace, Carbonear, and Petty Harbour. Within just ten years, 43 N.S.S. schools had been established on the Island, with an enrolment of approximately 6945 children in daily schools and 4714 in Sunday schools. The N.S.S. began to dissipate in the late 19th century when Newfoundland Legislature established an Education Board and set up Board Schools across the Island, and especially after the Education Act of 1891. In 1923, what still existed as the N.S.S. merged into a denominational school system known as the Church of England schools.

Public education in Newfoundland and Labrador, since the early 19th century, has largely been shaped by two factors: religion and the economy. The economy was based on a single industry, the fishery; the Protestant and Catholic churches, from 1843 onwards, dominated the educational system. Many of the independent schools before 1843, such as the St. John's Charity School, the Orphan Asylum School, various classical academies and the schools of the N.S.S., had claimed to be non-denominational. They accepted and taught children of all religions; yet there was an obvious bias towards certain denominations. The schools of the public education system put in place by the first Education Act in 1836 also opened their doors to children of all religions, (namely Roman Catholic and Church of England).

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