Educational Policy- 1988 Education Reform Act

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  • Created by: jocastle
  • Created on: 06-05-16 12:51

Educational Policy- 1988 Education Reform Act

Advantages

  • The 'funding formula' means school funding is determined by pupil numbers and nothing relating to class
  • Parental choice is valued and a crux of the act, unlike Comprehensive where children have to attend a certain school
  • Schools attract parents through advertisement of facilities and high achievement- schools are given an incentive to increase their standards of teaching, which in turn benefits the children in them

Disadvantages

  • Popular schools get oversubscribed and therefore can choose their pupils- and will recruit 'ideal' high-achieving middle-class students to ensure their success.  Middle-class students get better education.
  • Schools who achieve badly one time will get less popular and then less money, so they cannot afford to improve their standards next year, increasing their unpopularity leading to a 'spiral of decline' where working-class students get a below-par education
  • Middle-class parents are still at an advantage, particularly 'privileged skilled choosers' who can become governors or offer 'charitable donations' to ensure their child's place in a good school
  • Incentive to keep improving can lead to high pressure on students to achieve and therefore stress-related psychological problems
  • Aforementioned popular schools get economic and therefore educational capital, and declining schools get the opposite

Evaluation

Though Thatcher's marketization policies were effective in emphasising the importance of educational achievement and offering incentives for an ability-based outlook on schooling, these still perpetuated the class divide even further- even damaging working-class pupils' futures with the 'spiral of decline'.

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