Coalition

• Michael Gove

  • Heavily criticised the 'educational establishment' which he describes as 'the blob'.
  • Said education had failed to enforce rigorous standards and had made qualifications too easy.
  • Easy qualifications led to the declining standards of the workforce
• Coalition government

  • Took marketisation even further by creating academies and free schools.
  • Wanted to encourage 'excellence, competition and innovation' and introduce privatisation further.
• Academies

  • All schools were encouraged to become academies, not just the failing ones.
  • The government would force schools that ere not satisfactory to become an academy and the ones deemed as 'outstanding' by Ofsted were invited to be one.
  • Academies could opt out of local authority control and receive all their funding from the government.
  • They took control of their curriculum and could manage their own admissions and appeals.
• Evaluation of academies

  • The growth of academies created opportunities for more privatisation with some academies operating in chains run by businesses while being funded by the state.
  • Removes new labours focus on inequality by allowing any school to become an academy.
  • Increased fragmentation
  • Limited parental choice
• Free schools

  • The aim of free schools was to create choice when the existing provision was poor.
  • Free schools could be set up by 'founding groups' which were religious groups, parent groups and teacher groups.
  • They had a good amount of control over their ethos and curriculum.
  • Managed their own admissions and appeals
• Evaluation of free schools

  • Parental choice was limited in many areas as it continued to be difficult for children from disadvantaged backgrounds to get into their choice of school.
  • Swedish research suggests that free schools lower standards.
  • They are socially divisive.
  • Increased fragmentation.
• Haralambos and Holborn

  • Reported that the national union of teachers argued that free schools and academies had led to a reduction in budget available to other schools.
  • Widened inequality.
• Changes to the national curriculum

  • The national curriculum was made more traditional.
  • There was a focus on teaching grammar and fractions for 5 year olds.
  • Michael Gove set out a 'knowledge-based curriculum' rather than a focus on transferrable skills.
  • A levels were 'toughened up' with fewer resists allowed and vocational qualifications were downgraded
  • The EBACC was introduced. This took into account pupils performance in traditional academic subjects and narrowed the curriculum as schools focussed heavily on these subjects.
• The effects of the coalitions austerity programme

  • Spending on education fell in the UK by almost 15% between 2010-11 and 2014-15 to pay off the country's debt.
  • Sure start provision was drastically reduced which reduced the opportunities for working class pupils.
  • Students fees were raised from £3000 to a maximum of £9000 which discouraged students from less affluent backgrounds.
• Socially democratic influenced policies

  • Pupil premium
  • FSM
  • Funding for low-income high education students
• Pupil premium

  • Aimed at providing extra resources for schools related to the number of pupils and students who were on low income.
  • Headteachers were given the choice on how to spend this money. They had to demonstrate its effectiveness in increasing educational opportunity for disadvantaged students.
• Evaluation of pupil premium

  • Ofsted found that in many cases pupil premium is not spent on who it should be.
  • Only 1 in 10 headteachers said it has specifically changed how they supported students from disadvantaged backgrounds.
  • Ratcliffe found that 53% of teachers said that pupil premium money was not being used to plug the gap left by decreased funding in education.
• Funding for low-income high education students

  • Children from lower income families could get maintenance grants to cover the cost of living while at universities.
  • Larger loans were available for those from low income families who wouldn't be receiving extra money from wealthy parents.
  • Students were not required to pay back these loans until they were earning 21k and all loans would be wiped after 30 years.
  • Universities who charge more than £6k a year in tuition fees would bring in schemes to encourage underrepresented groups.
• 60% of state schools were academies by 2015