theme 2: creating a welfare state - 2C education and widening opportunites

1918 Education Act

Devolved significant responsibilities to local education while providing some funding - quality and systems of education varied- made evident by the poor educational attainment and skills of military personnel during the war

The 1918 education Act was passed based on the Lewis Report which was complied during the war - recommended:

• school leaving age of 14

• New tier of county colleges to provide vocational training for school leavers up to the age of 18

• Employers were obliged to release young employees to attend once a week - didnt always happen due to cost

• Curriculum divided into ‘practical instruction’ for less able children to prepare them for the workplace and ‘advanced instruction’ for more bale children

1926 Haddow report recommended:

Raising school leaving age to 15

Impact of large classroom size 50-60 students

Only possible form of education was learning by rote

Pre WW2 only — of WC children aged 13 and above were still in school

13% - education was compulsory up till 14

Uneven nature of education provision in 1931:

5.5 million children in elementary schools, 600 thousand in secondary education, 30 thousand in university

Butler act 1944

State secondary schools no longer charged fees - cost of mass education paid by general taxation

Compulsory education extended till 15

Tripartite system reflected class system

Grammas schools, secondary moderns, secondary technical schools

Grammar schools

Intended to make an academic curriculum available to all children who pass ’11+ exam’ - a route to greater opportunity for WC children

Secondary modern schools

Tended to equate the majority of lower MC and WC children. Fewer resources and less qualified teachers. Offered innovative curriculum for students, ties with colleges so pupils could transfer to vocational courses.

75% of students went to secondary moderns post war - very few did A levels tho

Technical schools

Intended to educate MC for scientific and engineering work - technocratic class - very few were built due to cost - intak was never more than 3% of secondary aged pupils

First purpose built comprehensive school

Kidbrooke 1954 - Labour local authority

The Crowther Report 1959 - focused on eduction for people 15-19

• raising school leaving age to 16

• Creating county colleges for post16 education and more technical colleges

• Sixth form teachers of the ‘highest intellectual calibre’

• More sixth form courses - less vocational = art and humanities

• Preparing the able students for uni without making the less able feel 2nd best

• All pupils who are able take O levels

• More teachers

1951 general certificate of education

Ordinary level at 16 -Advanced level at 18 - vast number that took them were in grammar or private education

The Newsom Report 1963 - education provision for low ability students

• new focus on researching teaching methods

• Teaching deprived children personal and social development - sex education

• Practical subjects for lower ability students - not made to sit exams

Schools in 1964

3,905 secondary moderns, 1,300 grammar schools, 200 comprehensives (labour wanted to make them all comprehensive)

Anthony Crossland

‘The whole notion of a selection test at the age belongs to the era when secondary education was a privilege of the few’

Fully comprehensive?

No - Labour informed LA’s it expected them to dismantle selection - never forced them. Was planned for introduction in 1970 but Wilson lost to Heath (Conservative)

Thatcher as Education Secretary

No more LEA requests for mergers of grammars and secondary moderns would be considered

Increased funding of direct grant schools - spoke in favour of the right to choose private education

BUT: by the time she left the Education Dept she had authorised more mergers than any other Secretary

Between 1970 and 1970=4 thatcher was presented with 3,612 comprehensive mergers

She approved 3,286

the number of comprehensive schools had more than doubled

From 30% in 1970 to 62% in 1974

The education act 1976

Reiterated that LEA must submit approvals for making their schools comprehensive but didn’t force them to.

Didn’t abolish all grammar schools due to not wanting to become unpopular with the MC

The Plowden Report 1967 recommended:

• banning corporal punishment

• Giving children more freedom within the classroom (instead of being forced to sit

• Encouraging teachers to help and advise rather than lecture

William Tyndall School

Removed all roles + let students choose what to do (watch TV + leave classrooms) - parents withdrew from the school in protest - Govt inquiry = teachers had revolutionary socialist views.

Was the exception to the rule among progressive education - national press interest =widespread concern

Result of progressive education

Some schools had outstanding results - others had chaotic classrooms and little work done. These were a minority but the press publicised the most extreme examples of educational failings

The black papers

1st negative reaction to progressive Ed 1969 - Brian Cox & Tony Dyson - essays criticising the decline of teachers authority - neither man advocated returning to strict rote learning

Yellow Book

1976 report ordered by James Callaghan

• school discipline had declined

• Many school curricula didn’t prepare students for productive roles in the economy

• The government and the public had too little say over what went on in schools

Ruskin Speech

Based on the Yellow Book’s findings - Callaghan gave the speech at Ruskin College (had been founded to educate WC men - C believed WC had been negatively effected by progressive education)

• progressive Ed caution had some merits but failed when in the hands of unskilled teachers

• Didn’t want to return to rote learning

• National curriculum

• Teachers should be scrutinised and inspected

Universities 1920s and 1930’s

• diverse and expanding university education provision

• Provincial university’s increasingly took more MC and WC students

• Funded through grants and scholarships offered by LEAs and charities

• ‘Teacher grants’ - Recognised Students in Training agreed to follow their degree with post grad teacher training and commit to teaching for a period after.

• Families saw the benefit of higher education - taking lodgers to pay

University funding

• from 1919 uni funding came from the govt treasury

• 1920’s unis wanted increased grants so govt increased scrutiny

• In general govt didn’t interfere much only 1/3 of university funds came from financial aid

1946 Attlee govt Percy Report (needed Uni’s to become centres for science and engineering for post war economy) recommended that -

• the privileged position of classical education in uni’s curriculum should be challenged in favour of science and engineering

• Expanded to cater for more students post Butler Act 1944

The Barlow Report 1946

Far too few scientists and engineering students - argued for govt funded expansion

By 1960 there still too few science courses - Uni’s still prioritised arts - resistant to change

1961 only 15% of applications to uni were successful - >20 new unis were opened in the 60’s

Robbins Committee warned that:

Britain was overtaken by other countries in terms of uni performance - they needed to garuntee a Uni place for everyone eligible to attend

5x more students by 1980

Robbins Committee stated that university education should achieve 4 main goals:

• ‘Instruction in skills’ for a competent workforce

• ‘General powers of the mind’ to be developed to make students broadly educated

• Teaching academics should still research

• Teaching should be a social role

University of East Sussex opened 1961 & Kent Uni 1965

Plate glass campus - multi disciplinary approach to learning - result of the Robbins Committee

The Open University

Opened 1971 by Wilson government - distance learning, could study courses at home - any age could have higher education (Heath in 1970 considered cancelling OU but didn’t risk the political fallout)

Thatcher as Education Secretary 1970’s

• prevented Heath from cancelling OU

• Spent more than any of her predecessors on uni and polytechnic funding

• Increasing grants by 40%

Increase in Uni students 1970’s

Heath govt aimed for ¾ million by 1981 - fell short by 100k but this was still an enormous increase

Increase in uni students over the period.

1920 - 4400

1950 - 17000

197- - 51100

Social impact of uni education

• social mobility

• WC and MC prime ministers - Wilson, Heath and Thatcher only possible due to state subsidies

• New access to the professions

• From 1950’s living grants for food and accommodation

• Lack of financial risk incentivised WC people to study

By 1971 there were — uni’s and 30 polytechnics by —— there were ½ million students in higher education

53, 1974