New Right view of education

The New Right believe that the education system has failed in its aims. They agree that the education system is about socialisation and creating social solidarity and social cohesion. They believe that in order for the education system to fulfil its functions of socialisation, developing human capital and role allocation there needs to be more competition not just within schools but between schools.

Chubb and Moe were supporters of parentocracy. They looked at the American education system but this can be applied to the UK as well. They wanted to remove government oversight for the education system turning education private and the government would then provide vouchers to parents to spend on fees to send their children to school. All parents would get this not just the disadvantaged. By providing these vouchers parents could find the best school for their child and there would be more competition because schools would have to compete students in the same way shops compete for customers.

The New Right believe that schools should see parents and students as consumers so in order to get the students they are required to be the best school raising the quality of education. They talk about limiting grading so that we grade on a bell curve saying that within a year group only the top 5% can get an A. Their argument is that if we did this it would increase achievement within school and create more in terms of ensuring that the best people get into the best jobs suggesting to students that if they want to do these high level jobs they need to work hard for it. This is known at self-sufficiency. This will allow the education system to complete their aims of developing human capital and ensuring that people are sifted and sorted into the social hierarchy appropriately.

Evaluation

It creates a fear of failure putting pressure immediately on the students because their grades could influence their opportunities later in life. There is also an issue of simplifying a complex system. The education system is not as simple as Chubb and Moe are making out. There are factors not just about the cost of sending your child to school but the geographical element of being able to physically get your child to that school and the ethos of the school and parental experiences which will influence where you send your child to school.

This view is also contradicting as its saying that we need more competition and less government oversight but they’re influencing policy saying that this is what the government should put in place. It contradicts itself in the sense that they don’t want government oversight but want the government to tell schools what to do.