 The League became a major campaigning organisation, but Forster's Education Act retained the dominance of Church Schools in providing education for the young in England, Wales and Ireland.Collings called for Local Authorities to be obliged to set up sufficient schools to enable all children to attend; these schools should be inspected by the state and managed by local government; they should be free; and attendance should be compulsory.Collings' background in Devon gave him an appreciation of the problems of the agricultural worker and small-scale farmer rare in a major industrial city like Birmingham.