Education (5)

THE SIGNIFICANCE OF EDUCATIONAL POLICIES

Pre 1979 

• 1870 Education Act: every child in Britain has access to education. 
• 1918 Education Act: extends compulsory ed until age 14. 
• 1944 Butlers Act: extends ed until age 15. Aimed to abolish class inequalities in the ed system by providing three different types of secondary school, for different abilities. Grammar, Technical, Secondary. 
  • Disadvantages: Only grammar and secondary schools widely available due to the cost of equiping technical schools. 
  • Grammar schools- top 20%, specialised in acedemic and led to unis. 
  • Those attending secondarys were seen as failures, some not able to take exams, waste of talent. 
  • Pass mark for girls to enter grammar schools was higher- more boys. 
  • Social class divide remained, MC took grammar school places. 
  • System produced few skilled workers
• 1965 comprehensive system: 'one size fits all' ed system that all students could attend to create a more level playing field. Some grammar schools remained depending on the LA . 
  
  • Disadvantages:admissions based on catchment areas, ususally inhabited by just one, no social mixing. 
  • Grammar and private schools still available. 
  • Used streaming and setting, meaning the MC dominated the higher sets, creating class divide. 
  • NR criticised for lack of discipile, poor results, big classes etc. 
  • Advantages:Large schools became community hubs. 
  • More social interactions better created a 'mini society'. 
  • Better funding- more pupils. 

Conservative (New Right) policies 1979-97 

• Mostly under the Thatcher government. 
• Aim of the policies was to introduce the marketisation of education, to create a competitive marketplace of schools. Meaning that the MC were better able to exploit the new system, whereas the WC were under equipped to play the system- widening inequalities. 
• 1988 Education Reform Act:
  • National Curriculum: all students begun to take the same core subjects up to age 16, girls took maths and science- helping boost their performance. Increased coursework for assesment- best for girls. 
  • Parental choice: parents now able to decide the school that their children attended, however may cost for transport, or have to move house, therefore only really benefitting MC choosers. Created a parentocracy. 
  • Ofsted: government led system of inspecting all schools to check their level of performance and publised exam results for the public to read. Used by MC the most to inform choice. 
  • League tables: public was able to compare the 'sucess rate' of schools, and were judged by the same criteria regardless of their different situations. This meant that the best schools became even better as…