Educational policies

When was the education act?

1944

What were the features of the 1944 education act?

• Introduced compulsory state education up until the age of 14

• Tripartite system of schools (grammar, secondary modern and technical)

• Children would sit an 11+ exam and those who passed would go to a grammar school (around 20%)

What are three criticisms of the 1944 education act?

• There were really only two schools as technical schools were too expensive to build

• secondary modern and technical students were labelled as failures and often weren’t allowed to sit formal qualifications as a result of labelling

• Marxists are critical of the elaborate code that the 11+ exams were written in which disadvantaged ethnic minorities and the working class which used a restricted code

What is a strength of the 1944 education act?

It provided upward social mobility for working class children who passed the 11+ exams

When was the comprehensive education act?

1965

What were the features of the 1965 comprehensive education act?

Comprehensive education abolished selection at the age of 11 and aimed to educate all children in the same secondary school, regardless of their class, ethnicity, gender or ability