educational policy and inequality

• educational policy and inequality

  • in britain before 1988

  selection:tripartite system

  comprehensive school system

  • marketisation

  parentocracy

  reproduction of inequality

  league tables and cream-skimming

  funding formula

  Myth of parentocracy

  new labour and inequality

  • conservative government policies from 2010

  academies

  free school

  fragmented centralisation

  policies to reduce inequality

  • privatisation of education

  blurring public/private boundary

  privatisation and the globalisation

  cola-isation of school

  education as a commodity
• educational policy in britain before 1988


  • no state schools, provided by fee paying schools for the well off, or by churches and charities for a few of the poor
  • before 1833 the state spent no public money on education
  • school compulsory from age 5-13 in 1880
  • school did little to change pupil ascribed status
• selection: the tripartite system - 1944


  • influenced of meritocracy that individuals should achieve their status
  • grammar, secondary, tripartite
  • tripartite system and 11+ reproduced class inequality , ideology that ability is born
  • girls had to gain higher marks than boys to pass the 11+
  • through 11+ childrens environment greatly affects their chances of success
• the comprehensive school system 


  • aimed to overcome the class divide of the tripartite system
  • 11+ and schools were replaced by comprehensive schools that all pupil within the area would attend
  • not all of the local education authority chose to fo comprehensive so grammar- secondary schools still exist in many areas
• 2 theories of the role of comprehensives


  • marxist

  servs intrestrest of capitalism- reproducing and legitimating class inequality.( practice of streaming and labelling, denying w/c children equal opportunities)

  • functionalist

  fulfilling essential functions- social integration( bringing children of different social classes together in one school) and meritocratic selection for future work. ( gives pupil longer period to develop and show their abilities)
• marketisation 


  • reduce direct state control over education
  • increase both competition between schools and parental choice of school
  • 1988 education reform act - conservative government
  • 2010 - creating academies and free schools
  • Neoliberals and new right - school attract customers by competing with each other in the market, school that will thrive and not go out of business
• parentocracy - promote marketisation 


  • league tables and Ofsted inspection
  • business sponsorship of schools
  • open enrolment
  • specialist school , specialis in IT, language etc
  • formula funding , receives same funding for each pupil
  • schools can opt out of local authority control , become academies
  • school compete
  • tuition fees for higher education
  • letting parents and others set up free schools
• reproduction of inequality (parentocracy ) critics 


  increased inequality.

  marketisation policies like exam tables and funding formula reproduce class inequalities by creating inequalities between schools
• league tables and cream skimming 9 study of international patterns of educational inequality (2012)


  competition oriented education system such as britain produce more segregation between children of different social backgrounds
• Gewirtz: parental choice - 3 main types of parents 


  • privileged skill choosers - professional m/c uses economic and cultural capital to gain educational capital for their children. knows how school admission system work, can afford to move
  • disconnected-local chooser - w/c parents, lack capitals. difficult to understand school admission. less confident in their dealings with schools and less able to manipulate the system. more importance to safety and quality
  • semi-skilled choosers - w/c, ambitious relied on other peoples opinions about school
• myth of parentocracy (Ball)


  makes it appear that all parents have the same freedom to choose schools

  m/c parents are able to take advantage of the choices available
• new labour and inequality - policies to reduce inequality 


  • provides additional resources to deprived areas
  • Aim higher programme - raise aspiration
  • education maintenance allowances: payment to low income background encouraging students tot stay after 16
  • national literacy strategy - reducing primary school class size
  • city academies - fresh start to struggling inner city schools
  • increased funding for state education
• conservative government policies from 2010 


  • accelerated the move awat from education system based largely on comprehensive schools, strongly influenced by Neo-liberal and Newright ideas about reducing role of the state in provision of education through marketisation and privatisation
  • aim was too encourage excellence, competition and innovation by freeing schools from the dead hand of the state through policies like academies and free schools
• academies - from 2010


  • schools encouraged to leave local authority control and become academies
  • 2021 over 78% have converted to academy status, some ran by private educational business and funded by the state
  • however , disadvantage schools and areas by allowing any school to become an academy, removing focus on reducing inequality
• free schools 


  • funded by the state , set up and run by parents, teachers, faith organisations or business rather than local authority
  • improve educational standard - gives parents and teachers to create a new school if they are unhappy
  • however - only benefit children from higher educated families , socially diverse
• fragmented centralisation (Ball)

  Fragmentation - comprehensive system replaced by patchwork of diverse provision, involving private providers, leads to greater inequality in opportunities

  centralisation of control 0 central government has the power to allow school to become academies or free school to be set up. these schools are funded by central government, rapid growth reduced the role of elected local authorities in education
• policies to reduce inequality 


  • free school meals - all children in reception year one and two
  • the pupil premium - money that the school receive for each pupil from disadvantaged backgrounds

  however Ofsted found pupil premium not spent on pupil who need it

  spending on school buildings was cut by 60% and university tuition fees tripled
• the privatisation of education 


  • building schools: providing supply teachers, work-based learning, career advice and Ofsted inspection services and running entire local education authorities
  • many activities are very profitable , however local authorities are often obliged to enter into these agreements as only way of building new schools because of lack of funding by central government
• blurring the public/private boundary 


  directors of local authorities and head teachers leave to set up work for private scotor education business, these companies bid for contracts to provide services to schools and local authorities

  flow of personnel allows companies to buy 'insider knowledge' to help win contracts and side stepping local authority democracy
• privatisation and the globalisation of education policy

  • many private companies are foreign-owned, Edexcel is owned by the US educational publishing and testing giant pearson , some pearson GCSE exam answers are marked in sydney and lowa
  • many contracts for educational services in the uk are sold on by the original company to banks and investment funds
• the cola-isation of schools 


  • private sector penetrate education indirectly , vending machines in schools and brand loyalty
  • schools are targeted by private companies because schools by their nature carry enormous goodwill and can confer legitimacy on anything associated with them , kind of product endorsement
  • however involvement is often limited,E.g - pupil would have to eat 5,440 chocolate bars just to qualify for a set of volleyball posts , families spend £110,000 in tesco supermarkets in return for a computer for school
• education as a commodity 


  privatisation is a key factor shaping education policy , moving educational serves out of the public sector controlled by the nation-state

  state is losing its role as the provider of educational services

  marxist see conservative government policies as part of the 'long march of the neoliberal revolution'
• policies on gender 


  in 19th century , females were excluded from higher education

  tripartite system where girls had to achieve higher marks to pass the 11+

  since 1970s - policies like GIST to reduce gender differences in subject choice
• policies on ethnicity 


  • Assimilation policies (1960 and 70s) help children with english as a second language
  • however p some minority groups are at a risk of underachieving like african caribbean pupils where the cause is poverty and racism
  • Multicultural education (1980-19990) promote achievement from minority ethnic group by valuing all cultures in school curriculum
  • social inclusion - detailed monitoring exam results by ethnicity, amending race relation act to place legal duty on school promoting racial equality
  • helo voluntary ' saturday schools' in black community
• MCE criticism - policies on ethnicities 


  • misguided, black pupil don't fail for lack of self esteem
  • it picks out stereotype features for inclusion in the curriculum, but fails to tackle institution racism , instead favour policy of anti-racism education challenges prejudice and discrimination in education and wider society
  • education should promote shared national culture and identity into which minorities should be assimilated
• criticism of social inclusion

  Mirza sees little genuine change in policy, instead of tackling structural causes of ethnic inequality such as poverty and racism, to take 'soft' approach that focus on culture, behaviour and the home

  Gillborn - institutionally racist policies in ethnocentric curriculum, assessment and streaming continues to disadvantage minority ethnic group pupils