2010-2015 coalition government

• coalition government led by conservative and Liberal Democrats
• Gove introduced the English Baccalaureate (EBacc) which was compulsory from September 2015 onwards. It included maths, english, science, history or geography and a language other than english.
• education secretary Michael Gove
• carried on marketisation and privatisation policies influenced by Neo-liberal and new right ideas
• coalition policies

  • forced academisation
  • pupil premium
  • free schools
  • increased uni tuition fees
  • Ebacc
  • scrapped EMA - replaced with bursaries
• aims of coalition policies

  1. more choice
  2. competition
  3. efficiency in education market
  4. improve equality
• forced academisation


  made it possible for any school to convert to an academy

  failing schools forced into academy or shut down
• free schools 


  state funded, controlled by non - profit charitable trust

  ran by parents

  no national curriculum
• fairness premium

  •  used to fund disadvantaged children aged 2 to 20 
  •  coalition’s main policy suite to reduce inequality of educational achievement and close the attainment gap.
• pupil premium 


  giving schools extra funding based on the number of FSM pupils they took in

  received £600 for every child (early years - year 11)
• curriculum reform

  • coursework scrapped from GCSES and A-levels
  • content of national curriculum made more challenging
  • Ebacc made more important measure in league tables - made arts and technical subjects less important
• English baccalaureate 


  performance measure for schools

  measures achievement of pupils who gained GCSEs in English, maths, history, geography