Educational policies

No state schools

Education for rich only

Some churches provided education to the poor

State spent no money on education

Need for educated workforce

Elementary education (5-10 year olds)

Attendance compulsary until age 10 (1880)

4 R curriculum - Reading, writing, arithmetic and religion

Free education for children aged 5 - 15

Aimed for equal opportunity and meritocracy, M/C bias and sexist as girls had to                 score higher                         

Triparite system - Sit test age 11 and went to 1 of 3 schools

Grammar school - M/C, passed 11+

Secondary Modern school - W/C, failed 11+ (biparite system)

Technology school - Vocational, practical studies (existed in few areas)

Aimed to overcome class divide of triparite system

11+ abolished with grammar schools and secondary modern

Replaced with comprehensive schools for all students in an area

LEA created in all boroughs, had choice for comprehensive education, grammar-secondary modern divide still exists

Social solidarity from class mixing

Meritocractic - More time to show ability rather than age 11

Evaluation

Ford (1969) little mixing of classes occured due to streaming.

Failed to challenge streaming and labelling

Denies W/C same opportunities, myth of meritocracy

Conservative - Margaret Thatcher

Marketisation of education - Consumer choice, competition between schools, parentocracy

Publication of league tables

Business sponsorship of schools

Open enrolement - successful schools recruit pupils

Specalist schools

Funding formula - Same funding for each pupil

School compete to attract pupils

Favor marketisation - successful schools thrive, failing schools go out of business

Formula funding means some students become more attracted to some schools                 rather than others as they are likely to achieve high grades

Ball (1994) and Whitty (1998) argue marketisation reinforces inequality.

Barlett (1993) encoruages schools to participate in two types of behaviours:                       

Cream skimming - Students apply for schools, who are they, skim off the best students most likely to get the top grades, leaving the rest to apply elsewhere

Silt shifting - Pick up everyone, get rid of students they see as problems       

School allocated funding by formula based on how many pupils they attract

Popular schools - more funds, better teachers, better facilities

Popular schools - selective, M/C

Unpopular schools - lose income, lose good teachers, facilities deteriorate, fail to attract pupils

Institute for Public Policy Research (2012) competition orinetated education systems produce segregation between children of different social backgrounds

Parentocracy myth - M/C benefit from this

Stephen Ball - parentocracy disgusied class inequality

Education Action Zones - Deprived areas, extra funds

Aim Higher - Encourage under represented groups in HE

Reduction of class sizes

City academies - Under performing inner city schools

Increased funding for education

Melissa Benn (2012) - Contradiction between continued commitment to marketisation and tackling inequality

Introduced EMAS to help pupils stay in education but then implemented Uni Tuition fees, which deters W/C

Conservative and Lib Dem Coalition Government aimed to - Promote excellence, whilst freeing schools from dead hand of state

2010 - Schools encoruaged to leave LEA control, convert to academies, recieve funds from Department of Education (removed focus of tackling inequality)

Free schools - Funded by state, run by parents, charities, businesses and faith groups

Rebecca Allen (2010) - Looked at Sweden free schools and US, found educational standards fell. Success was the product of using socially devisive pupil selection and exclusion policies

DOFE 2012 - Free schools take fewer disadvantaged children

FSM - Reception, Y1, Y2

Pupil Premium - Extra money for schools with disadvantaged children

Tripled Uni fees, closed Sure Starts, cut Building Schools for the Future Programme by 60%

Policies created inequalities