Social policy

• Forster education act (1870):

  • Introduced elementary schooling for 5-10 year olds.
  • Three r’s- Reading, writing and arithmetic
• Tripartite system (1944):

  • After the 2nd world war.
  • ‘Education for all’
  • 11+ exam sorted people into a school
  • Types of school- Grammar, secondary modern and technical
  • System where efforts and ability was rewarded.
• Tripartite system- Evaluation

  • Few technical schools were actually built.
  • Reproduced class and gender inequality.
  • 11+ failures were labelled and turned off of school.
  • Even if middle class students failed their parents could still pay to get them into private schools.
• Comprehensivisation (1950’s/65)

  • Labour government insisted the LEA’s (Local education authorities) reorganised schools so they educated everyone.
  • Class, gender and ethnicity didn’t matter.
  • It was meritocratic.
• Comprehensives- Evaluation (Strengths)

  • Didn’t use 11+ so students weren’t labelled as failures.
  • Schools became more meritocratic.
  • High ability students do just as well in comprehensive schools.
  • More pupils got qualifications.
  • Social integration, encouraged social classes to be together.
• Comprehensives- Evaluation (Limitations)

  • They still streamed pupils.
  • Inner city comprehensives had a lack of disapline due to large class sizes.
  • Failed to create meritocracy as class differences still carried on.
  • Middle class areas still had higher pass rates.
• Marketisation: Introducing market forces of consumer choice and competition between suppliers. E.G. schools have to attract parents by competing with each other in the market.
• Parentocracy: Publication of league tables and OFSTED give parents information they need to choose the right school.
• Polices to promote marketisation:

  • Published league tables.
  • Business sponsorship
  • Open enrolment
  • Formula funding
  • Opting out
  • Schools competing to recruit
  • OFSTED
• Education reform act (1988):

  • Introduced National curriculum, OFSTED, business sponsorship, league tables.
  • Opt out of LEA and become grant maintained.
  • SAT’s and GCSE’s
  • Marketisation- parent choice
• ERA (1988)- Evaluation (Strengths)

  • Schools want to attract best students to improve their position on league tables.
  • Schools became image conscious.
  • Parental choice benefited the middle class as they had cultural capital to judge schools.
• ERA (1988)- Evaluation (Limitations)

  • National curriculum didn’t apply in private schools.
  • Gave government too much control over what was taught in schools.
  • Too much testing for pupils.
  • School teaching became Eurocentric and ethnocentric, not recognising diversity.
• New labour (1997):

  • Reduced primary class sizes to 30.
  • Introduced numeracy and literacy.
  • Created faith schools, specialist schools and academies.
  • Set up education action zones to help in areas of deprivation.
  • Tried to increase number of people going to university.
• Education action zones (New labour): Partnerships between schools, local authorities, businesses, and other organizations to improve education in disadvantaged areas.
• Changes made by New labour (1997):

  • Changes to AS/A2
  • Healthy schools
  • Extra powers to headteachers
  • School leaving age up to 18
  • Aim higher programme
• Coalition changes 2010-

  • Academy trust schools
  • Allowing parents to set up free schools
  • Pupil premium
  • Increased uni tuition fees to £9000
  • Performance related pay.
• Privatisation of education:

  • Education has been moved out of the public sector controlled by nation states and into private companies.
  • Education has been sold and is a source of private profit making.
  • Private companies build new schools, provide supply teachers and careers advisers.
  • Exam board Edexcel is US owned and some GCSEs are marked in Sydney.
• Marxists would talk about inequalities in any policy.
• Functionalists would look at the functional link between schools and work.
• Post-modernists would look at diversity and choice in recent policies.
• New right believe that the competition and culture is good.
• Feminism believe that schools were previously patriarchal but are now moving towards equality.