Marketisation 2

• Marketisation

  The process of introducing market forces it consumer choice and competition between suppliers, into areas ran by the state.
• Marketisation has created an 'education market'
• How marketisation has created an 'education market'

  1. Reducing direct state control

  2. Increasing competition between schools

  3. Increasing parental choice
• Policies to promote marketisation and modernization

  • League tables
  • OFSTED inspections
  • Business sponsorship
  • Open enrolment
  • Specialist schools
  • Formula funding
  • Academies
  • Schools competing to attract pupils
  • Introduction of tuition fees for higher education
  • Allowing people to set up free schools
• David, Parentocracy 


  Power shifts away from teachers/schools onto parents, encouraging diversity and giving parents more choice and raising standards
• What do Ball And Whitty say?

  Policies such as exam league tables and funding formula reproduce class inequalities between schools
• Marketisation and parentocracy

  Increase inequality
• Marketisation policies reproduce class inequalities between schools
• Exam league tables

  • Parents are attracted to schools with good league tables, Bartlett states this encourages cream skimming and silt shifting.
• Schools with lower positions in league tables

  Can't afford to be selective and have to take less able working class pupils, remaining unattractive to middle class parents
• The overall effect of league tables

  Is to produce unequal schools that reproduce social class inequalities
• Funding formula

  Schools are allocated funds based on how many pupils they attract, so popular schools get more funds and can afford better quality teachers and facilities, allowing them to be more selective
• Unpopular schools lose funds and find it difficult to meet the quality of competing schools, failing to attract pupils and having their funding reduced further
• A study by the institute for public policy found that Competition-oriented education systems produce more segregation between children of different social backgrounds
• Parental choice, Gewirtz


  • The economic and cultural capital of middle class parents puts them at an advantage to choose 'good' schools
• Types of parents

  • Privileged-skilled choosers
  • Disconnected-local choosers
  • Semi-skilled choosers
• Ball believes that Marketisation gives the appearance of a 'parentocracy', where it seems as if parents are getting a free choice of school
• In reality, as gewirtz shows, the parents who are better able to take advantage of the choices available are those who can afford to move into the catchment areas of more desirable schools
• Parentocracy makes inequality in education appear fair and inevitable
• Policies aimed at reducing inequality- new labour

  • Designating deprived areas as Education Action Zones and providing them with more resources
  • The Aim Higher programme to raise educational aspirations of those underrepresented in higher education
  • Education Maintenance Allowances for low income backgrounds
  • Introduction of the National Literacy Strategy
  • City Academies for working class pupils
  • Increased funding for state education
• Cream skimming

  ’good‘ schools can be more selective and choose their own customers, recruiting high achieving, middle class pupils, these students therefore gain an advantage.
• Silt shifting

  ‘good‘ schools can avoid taking less able pupils who are likely to get poor results and damage the schools position in the league tables