Marketisation

• Marketisation


  An industry's exposure to market forces
• New Right perspective


  • Political beliefs that arose in the UK in the 1970s, led primarily by Margaret Thatcher's Conservative Party, which sought to increase competition and privatise many areas of industry
• Marketisation of education


  1. Encouraging schools to compete against one another

  2. Running educational institutions like businesses
• National Curriculum


  Standards drafted for a set of subjects, introduced in England and Wales in 1988 to formalise educational standards and allow for standardised testing
• Elements of the National Curriculum

  • More rigorous testing in maths and English
  • Requirement for students to learn to code
• League tables


  Publicly recording school performance based on student exam results, introduced in 1992 to increase competition
• Ofsted


  The Office for Education Standards, Children's Services and Skills, created in 1992 to inspect schools and give them performance ratings
• Formula funding


  Schools receiving funding based on the number of students enrolled, introduced in 1988
• Privatisation


  State-owned services becoming controlled by the private sector
• Endogenous privatisation


  Privatisation occurring within the education system, e.g. schools competing like businesses
• Exogenous privatisation


  Privatisation occurring outside the education system, e.g. private companies building and maintaining state-owned schools
• City academies


  • Publicly funded schools operating outside the control of local authorities, introduced by New Labour in 1997
• Specialist and faith schools


  • Schools allowed to specialise in one of 10 categories or have a religious focus, introduced by New Labour in 1997
• University tuition fees


  Fees introduced by New Labour in 1998, with a means-based system where students pay an amount calculated through their parent's salary
• The Conservative-Liberal Democrat coalition government from 2010-2015 continued the expansion of academies
• Before the 1997 General Election, Blair promised he had no plans to introduce tuition fees for university education, which were exempted for the majority of full-time students
• In 1998, New Labour did indeed introduce tuition fees for the entirety of higher education
• Means-based system


  Students had to pay an amount calculated through their parent's salary
• In 2003, university tuition fees were raised to £3,000
• In 2010, the UK experienced its first coalition government in decades with the Conservatives and Liberal Democrats forming one regime
• The coalition government continued marketising education
• Expansion of academies in education

  1. Low-rated schools were initially forced to become academies

  2. Schools and colleges with an outstanding rating from Ofsted were instantly preapproved to become academies

  3. Academy chains also saw schools become involved in managerial oversight, helping other schools raise their standards
• Sponsored academies


  Schools that had to find a sponsor and stakeholders to aid in overseeing the function of the institution
• Converter academies


  Schools that became academies without needing to find a sponsor
• The Academies Act 2010 enabled more schools to become academies
• In September 2011, 24 free schools opened in the UK
• Initially, parents or teachers could open free schools, but this was later removed
• Pupil premium


  Additional funding for disadvantaged youths to close the gap between them and their wealthier peers
• In 2020-21, just over 2 million children were eligible for some form of pupil premium funding
• Schools receive £1,345 for every primary school student who receives free school meals, and £955 for every secondary student eligible for free school meals
• One of the most notable changes made by the coalition government was the increase in tuition fees, trebling the cap on university course fees from £3,000 to £9,000 a year
• This sparked numerous student protests across the country as the Liberal Democrats had won votes promising to scrap tuition fees
• Parentocracy


  A system where the power is moved away from schools and to the parents
• Marketising policies have had several wide-ranging impacts on education
• Advantages of marketisation of education

  • Increased choice of schools for parents
  • More private investment in education
  • Rising university attendance
  • Improved GCSE and A-Level pass rates
• Criticisms of marketisation of education

  • Social class and the myth of parentocracy
  • Deregulation and lack of qualifications in education
  • Selective enrolment in education
  • Hyper focus on 'teaching the test' in schools
  • Underperformance in international testing
• The marketisation of education refers to an educational policy initially pushed by the Conservative New Right which encouraged schools to compete against one another
• The Education Reform Act of 1988 passed by the Conservatives introduced the National Curriculum, league tables, the introduction of Ofsted, and formula funding
• The 1997 New Labour government continued the trend of marketisation of education started by installing city academies, diversifying the education system, and establishing tuition fees
• The 2010 coalition government persisted in marketing education through expanding academies, introducing free schools and pupil premiums, and rising tuition fees