Educational policy

• Educational policy


  Government strategies for education, introduced through legal changes and instructions to schools
• Education before the 19th century

  • Only provided by church or private schools
  • Industrialisation created a need for an educated and trained workforce
  • Led to the development of compulsory state-run education
• The development of state education

  1. Tripartite system introduced in 1944

  2. Selection by the 11+ exam

  3. Most middle-class pupils passed and went to grammar schools

  4. Most working-class pupils failed and attended secondary modern schools
• The tripartite system legitimated the resultant class inequality
• The comprehensive system introduced from 1965


  1. Abolished the 11+

  2. All pupils attended the same local comprehensive school
• Some areas did not go comprehensive, so the grammar-secondary modern divide still exists in many areas
• Functionalists' view of comprehensives

  • Meritocratic because they give pupils longer to develop by not selecting at eleven
  • Promoting integration by bringing all social classes together in one school
• Marxists' view of comprehensives

  • Reproducing inequality through streaming and labelling
  • Legitimating inequality through the 'myth of meritocracy'
• Education Act introduced


  1944
• 11+ exam


  • Used to select students for different school types based on their ability and results
• Grammar schools


  Mostly for MC students who passed the 11+, gives them academic curriculum for non-labour jobs/higher education
• Secondary modern schools


  Mostly for WC students who failed the 11+, gives them practical curriculum for manual jobs
• Technical schools


  Exists in just a few areas, focuses on preparing for specific career paths
• Comprehensive school system introduced

  1965
• Comprehensive school system


  Aimed to overcome the tripartite class divide and make education more meritocratic
• All pupils attend comprehensive schools, the 11+ and other school types were abolished
• Because the decision was up to local education authorities to go comprehensive, there's still a grammar/secondary divide in some areas
• The tripartite system didn't promote meritocracy, it reproduced class inequality- schools became for specific classes and offered unequal opportunities
• Gender inequality was reproduced-girls had to score higher in the 11+ to go to grammar schools
• Functionalist view of comprehensives

  • Promotes social integration by bringing different classes together in 1 school
  • Comprehensives are more meritocratic as pupils have longer to develop/show abilities
• Ford (1969) found streaming caused little mixing between WC and MC students in comprehensives
• Marxist view of comprehensives

  • Comprehensives aren't meritocratic, as labelling and streaming reproduce class inequality
  • No 11+ also causes the myth of meritocracy as it looks like chances are more equal, and that failure is the individual's fault