In general the author has noted that the "powers-who-were" often complained of the poor attendance of the Coll children and, when called in question, parents pleaded a lack of clothing and footwear. Most people were very very poor in those days and if children got a soaking on the way to school and back again it would be difficult to provide them with a dry outfit for the next day. Wellingtons were unknown for children... There was great difficulty in staffing Coll schools sometimes weeks passed without a teacher, some teachers only stayed for brief periods and often local ministers or other worthies were called in to help...

The first energetic movement for general education in the Highlands and Islands was launched by the Society for the Propagation of Christian Knowledge (S.P.C.K.), founded in 1707 which worked in co-operation with the Church of Scotland. S.P.C.K. records mention a school in Coll as early as 1725, which must have petered out quickly, but in 1794 a successful settlement was made somewhere in Grimsary, the exact site unknown. The schoolmaster was Ebenezer Davidson, a diligent and dedicated teacher by all accounts. Among his pupils was Lachlan MacLean of the Arnabosd family who later settled in Glasgow, wrote several books in English and Gaelic and was a leading light in Gaelic literary circles.

A society inspector who visited the school in 1824 described the schoolroom as being also the church of the island so the school must have been transferred to Clabach. There were 35 scholars attending, he reported, increasing to 50 in winter when their parents didn't require help on the crofts. Obviously that one school couldn't cater adequately for the educational needs of the whole island which had, at that time, a population of about 1,300. And indeed, prior to the early nineteenth century, the common folk had scant opportunity for any sort of schooling. At this time upper class families (the laird and his kinsmen) used the old Celtic system of fosterage, or had private tutors for the young and sent their sons to mainland schools.
In 1811 the Gaelic Schools Society was founded for the express purpose of teaching the inhabitants of Gaeldom to read the scriptures in their native tongue. Its schools were ambulatory, meaning that a teacher would spend about two years in a school, then leave his best pupils to carry on with the work whilst he moved to another place; eventually he moved on again, or returned to his first post. The Society's first school was opened at Toraston in 1813 and the shell of the building still stands in that deserted township. When it was inspected in 1814 by the Minister, Mr Davidson, there were between 40 to 60 pupils. The schoolmaster then was Alexander MacKenzie and he moved on to Arinagour where his roll varied from 30 to 70 children and adults, depending on the seasonal work.

Other sites of the Gaelic Schools in Coll were at Ardnish, Kilbride, Acha, Caolas, Leachdruadh, Ceanna a Bhaigh and Bousd. The schools were held in very humble shelters but the teachers gave devoted service. One was David Fowler from the Black Isle and tradition has it that he used to march his pupils down to Bousd Strand to teach them their letters on the firm sand. One of Fowler's daughters, incidentally, married a local crofter and their son Alexander was the first East End postman who later died on the road with his pack on his back.

Schooling was still the province of the Church of Scotland and in 1824 the Education Committee of its General Assembly decided to set up schools where required. As there had never been an official Parish School in Coll the first General Assembly School was opened at Arinagour in 1826 with Alexander Stewart from Perthshire in charge. In his first half-yearly report Stewart recorded a roll of 107, made up of 77 males and 30 females of all ages. But in 1829 it was reported that the school had removed to Arileod and local tradition avers that it was housed in the present byre of Arileod Farm.

The great division in the Church of Scotland, the Disruption of 1843, affected the schools as well as the churches. In Coll, the whole population followed their Minister into the Free Church and Alexander Stewart went with them. He had thus to vacate the Arileod byre and established his Free Church school at an unknown site at Arnabosd. One Robert MacDonald took over the Arileod school for several years but when he left the island there was no replacement for quite a while.

In 1863, John Lorne Stewart, the new proprietor of the main part of the island, had a new school built at Acha with a commodious house attached. This was at a time when unease regarding the state of education in the Hebrides reached parliamentary level and another tour of inspection was launched by the government. In the resulting report Coll was assessed as one of the worst off areas for the provision of education. Responding to this, John Lorne Stewart had another school built at Arnabosd, the present roofless building at the crossroads. So, when the Education Act of 1872 made education compulsory, this school and the one at Acha became the Board Schools.

Prior to this, in 1850, another scholastic initiative had been taken - the Ladies' Association Schools, so-called because the women of the Free Church organised them. Despite pleas for a school in the island's East End it was not until 1878 that one was settled at Bousd, in Struan House where Miss Mary Lang now lives. Until that time, the intermittant visits by Gaelic School teachers were the only opportunities available to the East-enders. The Association's schools employed only divinity students who thereby got assistance with their college fees. Unfortunately they had to absent themselves in the winter for the college term, but contracted to leave someone in charge.

The 1872 Education Act transferred the Acha and Arnabosd schools from the authority of the Assembly to the School Board and new Board schools were built at Arinagour in 1891 and at Bousd the next year. A small side-school was later opened for a few years at Greasbull to cater for children in the area and it was housed in the little corrugated iron building at the roadside near the farmhouse. This was because parents rebelled against sending their children through the bogs from the North Coast road to Acha school and it was indeed a very long walk from, say, Caolas to Acha in bad weather. The five-year-olds just couldn't make it and often didn't start school till they were nearly seven.

In recent years things have certainly changed. Due to an ever-diminishing population and the centralising policy of the Scottish Education Department, the outlying schools were closed in 1942 and the children transported to school by car. Acha school is now the residence of Mr and Mrs K. Stewart; the Arinagour School is now the factory for Coll Herbals Ltd; the Bousd building is now owned by Major Bristol as headquarters of the Project Trust. And in 1956 a modern school was opened in Carnan Road with council housing nearby.

My acknowledgements are due to the National Library in Edinburgh and the Argyll County Archivist in Lochgilphead for access to educational records. B.MacD