At the beginning of the 19th century, schools were for the rich. Children from rich families were typically taught at home by a governess until the age of 10. At that point, boys would then go to Public Schools, such as Eton and Rugby. Girls, on the other hand, continued to be educated at home. Most children never went to school and struggled to read or write (“Victorian Schools").
The poor were initially introduced to school thanks to the Sunday school introduction by Robert Raikes, with about 1,250,000 children gaining an education with this method by 1831 (“Victorian Schools").