History of educational policy

1870 - Forster Act

• Reasons:

  • Increase in population

  • Industrialisation, needed arithmetic and literacy

• Aims: preparation for the workplace

• Actions:

  • Made education compulsory and free

  • Added moral element to education, with link to the Church

1880 - further Education Act

• Aim: stop child labour

• Action: education compulsory until age of 10

1893, 1899 - Elementary Education (Blind and Deaf Children) Act, Elementary Education (Defective and Epileptic Children) Act

• Aim: extension of compulsory education to blind and deaf, and later other disabled children

• Action: establishment of special schools

1918 - Fischer Act

• Actions:

  • Increase school leaving age to 14

  • Made state responsible for secondary education in the form of 50% of the funding

  • Added welfare element to schools - SEN, medical checks

1944 - Butler Education Act

• Reasons: post-war education reform

• Actions:

  • Introduced primary (5-11y/o) and secondary (11-15y/o) education

  • Made secondary education compulsory

  • Created the tripartite system

• Impact:

  • Tripled the number of female uni-goers

  • Tripartite system caused inequality

  • Caused self-fulfilling prophecies

    • If you went to a secondary modern, it was essentially the govt telling you that you were stupid at the age of 11

Tripartite system

1. Pass 11+ → grammar school

2. Fail 11+ .→ secondary modern

3. Fail 11+ but good with your hands → technical school (never really took off)

1965 (Wilson)

• Actions: introduction of comprehensive system

  • All classes/genders/ethnicities/abilities educated under one roof

1972 (Heath) - actions

• Increased school leaving age to 16

• Emphasis on mixed-ability teaching

• Emphasis on 3 x R’s

  • Reading

  • wRiting

  • aRithmetic

• O Levels GCSEs

1972 (Heath) - impacts

• Increase in inequalities within schools

• Higher-achieving students bought down

• Postcode lottery

Callaghan (1976-9)

• Gave speech called that started ‘The Great Debate’ about the nature and purpose of public education

• Aims: Focus on vocational education

• Actions: YTS (youth training schemes)

Thatcher (1979-1990)

• Aims: get children into work

• Actions:

  • Ran Callaghan’s YTS

  • Focus on BTECs and YTS

  • 1988 Education Reform Act

Thatcher’s 1988 ERA

• National curriculum

• GCSEs

• SATs at 7, 11 and 14

• School control over finances

• League tables

• OFSTED

• Vocationalism - YTS, WEX

• Marketisation - prospetuses, advertising

Blair and New Labour (1997-2010) - aims

• Increase vocational choice

• Increase number of those in university education

• Tackle inequality

Blair and New Labour (1997-2010) - actions

• Creation of BTECs, EVCE, GNVQ, NVQ (for vocational choice)

• Aim Higher programme

  • Encouraged underrepresented groups to go to uni

• Introduced tuition fees

• Education Maintenance Allowance

  • Up to £30/week to support childrne to stay in 6th form

• Surestart centres

• PFI

  • Private funding of school buildings

  • Outsourcing of cleaning, IT, etc., to private companies

Blair and New Labour (1997-2010) - impacts

• Benn

  • New Labour paradox

  • Decreased inequality, yet increased marketisation, introduced tuition fees and increased privatisation

Coalition policies (2010-15)

• Influence of NR and neoliberalism

• Actions:

  • Increased marketisation and privatisation

    • Academies, free schools

  • Austerity

    • Tripled tuition fees

• Impacts:

  • 2023 - 80.4% of all secondary schools academies or free schools