aware of the growing shortfall in provision the general assembly of the church of scotland formed an education committee in 1824. the committee had established 214 "assembly schools" by 1865. there were also 120 "sessional schools", mainly established by kirk sessions in towns and aimed at the children of the poor. the disruption of 1843, which created the breakaway free church of scotland, fragmented the kirk school system. 408 teachers in schools joined the breakaway free church. by may 1847 it was claimed that 500 schools had been built, along with two teacher training colleges and a ministerial training college, 513 schoolmasters were being paid direct from a central education fund and over 44,000 children being taught in free church schools. the influx of large numbers of irish immigrants in the nineteenth century led to the establishment of catholic schools, particularly in the urban west of the country, beginning with glasgow in 1817. the church schools system was now divided between three major bodies, the established kirk, the free church and the catholic church.