Educational Policy

1944 Butler Act - Introduced Grammar schools (20%), secondary modern (80%) & technical schools (5%).
Based on the principal of equality of opportunity (meritocracy).
However the 11+ exam was culturally biased and favoured m/c. Those who failed were labelled as failures, causing self-fulfilling prophecies and wastage of talent.
80% of children went to secondary modern schools & all of them left without qualifications.

1965 Comprehensive schools - Introduced by labour they were non-selective schools with no test for entry.
'Bog standard comprehensive school' - Alastair Campbell believed they were not specialist enough.
Streaming = 'Tripartite under one roof'.
Functionalists believe they promote social intergration & meritocracy by bringing different social classes together, this was critisised by Julienne Ford who's study found that there was little social mixing of the classes due to streaming.
However Marxists believe they reproduce class inequality through generations due to labelling & streaming.

Get Revising