Education policies

Policies that reduce class DEA/create equal opportunities between class groups

Education Action zones, Pupil premium, Sure start and every child matters and extended schools.

Education Action Zones (EAZs)

These programs directed resources to low-income, inner-city areas in an attempt to raise educational attainment.

Evaluation of EAZs

These may have improved overall education standards only to a limited extent. The schemes have provided only limited educational benefits for the most disadvantaged children.

Educational Maintenance Allowance (EMA) 1999

This is an allowance for students from low income families to help them stay in education up to age 19. This granted £30 a week to low-income students to tackle material deprivation. This was abolished by the Coalition government in 2011 and replaced with the 16-19 Bursary Fund, this was a smaller fund targeted at students most in need.

Pupil Premium

This was introduced by the Coalition government. Schools receive £600 a year as a ‘pupil premium’ for each eligible pupil from disadvantaged backgrounds to help improve their educational outcomes.

Evaluation of Pupil Premium

However OFSTED has expressed concerns that extra government funding for schools intended to help children from poor backgrounds is failing to make an impact. Only one in ten head teachers said that it had significantly changed how they supported pupils from disadvantaged backgrounds.

Sure Start

Free nursery places for 12 hours a week targeted mainly at low income areas. By 2010, there were 3031 centres. This scheme was based on the idea of early intervention, home visits and play centres will have a long-term positive impact.

Evaluation of Sure Start

It had been argued that the Sure Start programme has improved overall pre-school educational opportunities but it has struggled to reach the most deprived parents and children. Many Sure Start centres have been closed.

Every Child Matters and extended schools

Schools would be expected to provide: before and after school childcare and holiday play facilities, sporting and cultural enrichment activities for children.

Policies that reduce Ethnic DEA/ create equal opportunities between ethnic groups

Aiming high, Aim higher and multi-cultural education (MCE)

Aiming high

In 2003, the government provided more resources to 30 schools in which African Caribbean pupils were achieving below average. A central part of this strategy is to make racial equality issues more mainstream.

Evaluation of Aim high

Strength- It had begun to raise the attainment and improve progress for African-Caribbean students in some schools, leading to a reduction in performance gaps.

Aim Higher

This was a scheme aimed at getting more children from poor homes into England’s universities. It increased responsibility for widening participation to universities to attract poor students, to be more inclusive.

• This programme closed in July 2011 and increased responsibility for widening participation would be given to universities who would need to show they were attracting poor students to be allowed to charge higher fees.

Multi-cultural education (MCE)

Involves having assemblies and lessons focusing on educating the whole school about different cultures in the UK. Multicultural events- Black history month and cultural awareness day and the inclusion of non-Western cultures in the mainstream curriculum.

Evaluation of MCE

Critical race theorists argue that MCE is mere tokenism. It picks out stereotypical features of minority cultures for inclusion in one curriculum, but fails to tackle institutional racism.

Policies that tried to reduce gender DEA/ create equal opportunities between gender groups

Reading Champions, GIST and WISE

Reading Champions

This is a boys into reading scheme/reluctant readers. Famous football people/ sports people such as Gary Lineker promote reading through their influence and encourage engagement with literature among boys. They promoted the Summer Reading Challenge.

Evaluation:

• Boys may give up reading if they’re football icons stop promoting it- they will only do it because of marketing towards boys that love football- perhaps not all boys enjoy football or sports, leading to limited appeal and effectiveness in fostering a genuine love for reading.

GIST and WISE

GIST- This was to address gender differences in subject choice and encourage more girls to choose sciences at school, for e.g by getting more women scientists to visit schools and posters about women’s contributions to science.

WISE- This was to highlight career opportunities for girls and women in science and engineering professions. Between 1984 and 2003 WISE helped to give 13-14 year old girls the opportunity to have hands on experience of science and technology.

What does vocational education mean?

This refers to teaching people the specific knowledge and skills to prepare them for a particular career. Vocational education can either be on the job training- such as with apprenticeships, or courses focused on a particular career in a college (16-19). It focuses on practical and work-related learning activities, aiming to prepare students for employment or further training in a specific field.

Vocational education- policy (T-levels)

T-levels were introduced in September 2020. T-level students spend 80% of the course in the classroom- the other 20% is on the job-training putting the skills to use. T-levels focus on vocational skills and can help students into skilled employment, higher study or apprenticeships.

Vocational education- NVQs

This is involved in building a portfolio of evidence to prove that you had the specific skills necessary for a job.

Criticism: inferiority to A-level qualifications, and much on the job training was of a low quality because it wasn’t very well regulated.

Functionalist view of vocational education

Role allocation: Vocational education selects and allocates pupils to their future work roles. This allocates the best into the most qualified jobs. Manual jobs such as carpentry or building was good for allocating pupils into their future jobs- through T-levels and YTS.

Durkheim’s view of specialist skills: specialist knowledge and skills to perform their role into the social division of labour.

Marxist view of vocational education

Mostly w/c pupils went down the vocational education route, whilst m/c pupils did A-levels- this was regarded as a ‘proper qualification’. Marxists see vocational education as reinforcing the class divide and perpetuating social class inequality. Bowles and Gintis- correspondence principle- reinforces w/c exploitation.