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State Policy and Education - Coggle Diagram
State Policy and Education
The
1944 Education Act
Introduced the
Tripartite System
and the
11+
Before
WW2
, many poor people couldn't afford secondary education because it
wasn't free
Made secondary schools
free for all
and
raised the leaving age to 15
Took the
11+ exam
at the end of primary and went to
1 of 3
types of school:
Secondary Modern Schools
For the 75-80% who failed.
Offered basic education
Technical Schools
Meant to provide vocational education
For those with an aptitude for practical subjects
Grammar Schools
For able kids who passed
Taught traditional subjects ready for university.
20% got in
The Tripartite System
aimed to improve the education for all children, but
problems
remained:
Few technical schools were built
, so the vocational part of the plan didn't work well. Most children ended up at grammar or secondary moderns. These were meant to have
'parity of esteem'
(having equal value), but grammar were seen as best
Kids who failed the 11+ were
labelled as failures
, which sometimes put them off education
The
11+
didn't necessarily measure your intelligence. It was
culturally biased
and suited the
MC
more. It
legitimised social class inequality
by incorporating it into a system
If well-off MC failed, their parents
could still afford to send them to private school
Took a largely
Functionalist Approach
since it was based on role allocation
In
1965
The
Labour Government
Made Schools
Comprehensive
Insisted that
Local Education Authorities
(LEAs) reorganised most schools so that everyone had
equality of opportunity
'Comprehensive School' means it's universal - everyone's meant to get the same deal
Positive
Aspects
No 11+
, 80% of the school population don't get labelled as failures
High ability
pupils generally still do well
Lower ability
do better in comprehensive schools than in secondary moderns
Negative
Aspects
Most still sort pupils into streams or sets depending on test scores, so it's still possible to feel like a failure
In WC areas have
worse GCSE results
than those in MC areas
In
1976
the Push for
Vocational Education
Started
Labour Prime Minister
James Callaghan
made a speech saying British education and industry was in decline because schools
didn't teach people the skills they needed in work
All governments since have had policies designed to create a closer link between school and work, called
vocationalism
Reforms
include:
Youth Training Schemes
(YTS) started in
1983
, these were job training schemes for school leavers aged 16-17
NVQs
(1986) and
GNVQs
(1992) were introduced, these were
practical qualifications
The New Deal
(1998) meant people on benefits had to attend courses if they didn't accept work
Problems
with Vocational Education
Some argue that vocational education aims to teach
good work discipline
, not skills
Some
Marxists
say that vocational training provides
cheap labour
and that governments encourage people into them to
lower unemployment statistics
Often aren't regarded as
highly
as academic qualifications by universities and employers
Some
Feminists
argue that vocational qualifications
force girls into traditionally 'female' jobs
e.g. beautification and childminding
The
1988 Education Reform Act
- Choice, Inspections and More Tests
In the
late 1980s
, the
Conservative
government introduced some major reforms based on
New Right
ideas
Widening
choice
Encouraging more
competition
to create a
'market'
Should link to the
economy
Introduced more
vocational courses
and
more work placement schemes
Should be
better standards
Introduced a
National Curriculum
of
compulsory subjects
for all
5-16 year olds
. English, Maths and Science ('core subjects') had to be given more time
OFSTED
(Office for Standards in Education) set up to
inspect
schools and make sure they were
doing a decent job
Schools could
opt out
of of their local education authority and become
grant-maintained schools
- means they got money
straight from government
and
spend it how they liked
(believed this would improve standards)
Should be a system of
choice
and
competition
Parents could
choose where to send their kids
, if they had space
Parents could use
league tables
to help, these show how many kids at each school pass their exams and get good grades
David
(1993) describes this as a
'parentocracy'
, because the power is held by parents, rather than teachers and schools
Schools worked like
businesses
and
advertised
for students
There should be
more testing
and
more exams
Pupils had to sit
SATs
at
7, 11 and 14
, and
GCSEs
at
16
Results could be used to form
league tables
and monitor
standards
Criticisms
of these policies
Whitty
(1998) argue that MC parents have an
advantage
in an educational
market
More likely to have the
cultural capital
to choose a good school
May also have the
financial capital
to move to an area with better schools
Increasing parental choice can actually
reinforce social class inequality
Constant
testing
can be stressful, and encourage
labelling and self-fulfilling prophecies
Ball
(1995) claimed the
National Curriculum
was the 'curriculum of the dead', because its emphasis on the core subjects was
outdated
New Labour
(1997-2010) Followed
Third Way
Ideas
They wanted to do something about
educational inequality
, but wanted
choice
and
diversity
This is called
third-way politics
, it's like a combination of
old Labour
policies of
state intervention
and the
New Right
policies of
marketisation
Continued the process of
marketisation
begun by the previous Conservative government.
Allowed schools to
specialise
in certain subjects e.g. becoming Music Colleges or Mathematics Colleges
To try and
create diversity
and
increase choice
Allowed
faith schools
to be set up
New Right
thinking made education more
privatised
, agencies were given
contracts
for things like improving reading and writing in primary schools
Claimed this would improve efficiency and standards because they're
competitive
, but some argue
privatisation
takes too much control away from schools
Pursued some
interventionist
polices
Introducing
numeracy hour
and
literacy hour
in
primary schools
Trying to
increase
the
number of people going to university
Reducing infant class sizes
to a max of
30
The
Curriculum 2000
was a big change in education for
16-18 year olds
Policy changed to make A-levels broader
A
vocational A-level
was introduced
Key skills
qualifications were also launched, supposedly useful for all jobs
Policies Aimed to
Reduce Class Inequality
Compensatory education
tries to make up for
material and cultural deprivation
by giving extra help.
Interactionist
Approach
Sure Start
(1999) was a government programme to improve early education and childcare in England
Offered up to 2 years of
free childcare
and
early education
to all
3-4 year olds
The
Educational Maintenance Allowance
gave up to £30 per week to students who stayed in education post-16
A series of
bonuses
were available for good attendance and progress
Means-tested
so only children from poorer families could benefit
Education Action Zones
(1998) were introduced as a way of tackling educational inequality by
area
Local public, private and voluntary organisations worked together and combined
resources
to try raise standards
FSM
(means-tested) and
breakfast clubs
The
Academies Programme
opened new schools in disadvantaged areas where existing schools were judged to be
'failing'
Run in partnership with
local business sponsors
to try improve performance
Benn
(2012) -
Criticism
Policies aimed at
reducing
educational inequality seemed to be
inconsistent
with policies that threatened to
increase
it
E.g. Introduced
university tuition fees
of £1000 per year in 1998, and increased them to £3000 in 2004
Barrier
to higher education for many WC
Third way-politics
was
too contradictory
calls this the
'New Labour paradox'
Polices Aimed to
Promote Gender Equality
Boys
In
1999
the government gave
grants
to primary schools to hold
extra writing classes
to help push up their
SATs scores
In
2005
the
Breakthrough Programme
introduced
mentoring, after-school classes
and
e-tutorials
for teenage boys in an attempt to improve their exam performance
Girls
The 1988 National Curriculum
gave all pupils equal entitlement to all subjects for the first time
Girls In Science and Technology
(GIST)
Encourage girls to get involved with subjects they have
traditionally avoided
Computer Club for Girls
(CC4G)
Women Into Science and and Engineering
(WISE)
Privatisation
and
Marketisation
Progressed under the
Coalition
Government
In the 2010 General Election, the
Conservative
and
Liberal Democrat
parties formed the Coalition led by David Cameron
Changed the
academies programme
Any school classed as 'Outstanding' could apply to become an academy
without a sponsor
Failing schools were made into
sponsored academies
The increasing number of schools run by
private organisations
means the
privatisation of education
has advanced
Introduced
free schools
, which are set up by groups of parents, teachers or religious groups and don't have to teach the National Curiculum
Hoped this would provide
more choice
in
disadvantaged areas
Education Secretary
Michael Grove
made changes to the National Curriculum
A-levels were changed to a
linear
structure - all exams taken at the end of a course
Coursework
and
modular exams
were
removed
at
GCSE
Far more
formal grammar
was included in the primary English curriculum
Introduced the
pupil premium
which provided extra funding for schools with students on
FSM
Supposed to be spent on improving educational experience of these pupils
Criticisms
Maximum
tuition fees
in higher education
increased
to £9000 per year
Can be seen as
socially exclusive
, because it's also increased the
loans
that most students need.
This debt can be off putting for
WC
students
In some disadvantaged areas, the
academies
and
free schools
attract all the best teachers,
undermining
other local schools
Difficult to track whether
pupil premium
funding is actually being spent on
disadvantaged
pupils, or being absorbed into the whole school budget
Education has been Affected by
Globalisation
Idea that traditional national boundaries are
breaking down
across the world, as people become
more connected
by improved technology, multinational companies and increased migration
British economy needs to be competitive in global industries like
technology
, so workers need to be highly trained
E.g.
Computer programming
has been introduced to
primary school
curriculum
Increased
immigration
has meant that there's a heavier focus on learning about
other cultures
Schools also need to provide
specialised support
for pupils whose first language isn't English
Educational
ideas
are
shared
between nations
UK politicians
have been influenced by countries such as
Finland
whose system is ranked very highly
Kelly
(2009) has warned that as education systems become increasingly
similar
, they'll become
less relevant
to the needs of individual nations