educational policies

• Compulsory education is education received dependent on socioeconomic status, which is hard to change
• Compulsory education was aimed to increase the workforce due to industrialisation
• Tripartite system (1944)


  Aimed to improve equality of opportunity (meritocracy) by providing all children regardless of background with the same opportunity
• Butler Act 1944


  1. 11+ test

  2. Based on ability

  3. Sifted, sorted and selected
• Grammar, secondary modern and technical schools


  • MC = grammar = academic
  • WC = SM = basic
• The tripartite system 'embodied' meritocracy because everyone took the same test at age 11
• Girls had to score higher than boys on the 11+ test
• The tripartite system didn't remove structural barriers
• The tripartite system was based on the belief that ability is fixed at birth and measured in early life
• The tripartite system favoured white, middle-class pupils
• Comprehensive system (1965)


  Aimed to create equality once again across socioeconomic status by abolishing the 11+ to make the system more meritocratic
• Comprehensive schools were run and maintained by local authorities and were not selective on academic ability
• Comprehensive schools provided 6th form colleges to give the same opportunity to pursue the same qualifications
• Some places didn't go comprehensive, so the divide still existed
• Parents had little choice in the comprehensive system due to catchment areas
• Some comprehensive schools didn't have an adequate mix of students
• Comprehensive schools used setting, streaming and banding, which was a 'one size fits all' approach
• Private schools still existed alongside the comprehensive system
• Marketisation (1988)


  Aimed to emphasise choice, the consumer and competition by introducing market forces into education
• Marketisation policies


  • League tables
  • OFSTED inspections
  • Business sponsorships
  • Open enrolment
  • National curriculum
  • Formula funding
  • Opting out of LEA control
• Marketisation led to 'cream skimming' and 'silt shifting'
• Middle-class parents had advantages and could 'play the system' under marketisation
• Formula funding in the marketised system reproduced socioeconomic inequality
• Successful schools received more funding under the marketised system
• New Labour (1997-2010)


  Aimed to continue marketisation but also improve equality of opportunity
• New Labour's marketisation policies

  • City academies
  • Specialist schools
  • Introducing tuition fees
• New Labour's equality of opportunity policies

  • Sure Start centres
  • Education Maintenance Allowance (EMA)
  • Gifted and talented initiative
• Tuition fees and loans contradicted the introduction of EMA under New Labour
• The private school system was left untouched under New Labour
• The education market under New Labour ensured working-class pupils remained disadvantaged
• Coalition policies (2010-2016)


  Aimed to reduce state intervention and some forms of inequality
• The Academies Act (2010) allowed any school to become an academy, which increased the focus on marketisation
• Free schools set up by groups of parents, teachers etc. were a response to the local community
• Research found that free schools only benefited children from highly educated families
• Free schools took fewer disadvantaged pupils
• The Pupil Premium was not spent on the disadvantaged pupils it was supposed to help
• Since 2010, there have been major cuts in government spending on things like Sure Start, EMA and an increase in university fees
• Privatisation of education


  Aims to move functions or services previously provided by the state to private company ownership
• Key aspects of privatisation

  • Academisation
  • Exam boards
  • Educational businesses
  • Education services
• Privatisation may lead to businesses cherry-picking the best schools, increasing inequality