5.1 Educational Policy Before 1988

Question 1

Before the industrial revolution

Answer 1

• There were no state schools

- Education was only available to fee-paying for well-off children.

Question 2

Industrialisation

Answer 2

• Increased the need for an educated workforce

- From the late 19th century, state became more involved with education.

Question 3

What happened in 1880?

Answer 3

• State made education compulsory from 5-13
• Type of education depended on child’s class background.
• Middle-class pupils: academic curriculum to prepare them for careers in their professions or office work.
• Working Class pupils: Basic skills needed for routine factory work and to instil them an obedient attitude to their superiors.

Question 4

1944

Answer 4

• Education began to be influenced by the idea of meritocracy.
• 1944 Education Act: brought in the Tripartite System.

Question 5

Tripartite System

Answer 5

• Children were allocated to one of three educational institutions based on the 11+ exam.
• Grammar Schools, Secondary Modern Schools, Technical Schools (existed in a few areas only)

Question 6

Grammar Schools

Answer 6

• Offered an academic curriculum and access to non-manual jobs and higher education.
• They were for pupils with academic ability who passed the 11+
• These pupils were mainly middle-class

Question 7

Secondary Modern Schools

Answer 7

• Offered a non-academic curriculum and access to manual work for pupils who failed the 11+.
• These pupils were mainly working-class.

Question 8

Outcome of the Tripartite System: Reproducing Inequality

Answer 8

• Channelled the two social classes into two different schooling systems that had unequal opportunities.
• System also reproduced gender inequality by requiring girls to gain higher marks than boys to obtain a grammar school place.

Question 9

Outcome of the Tripartite System: Legitimising Inequality

Answer 9

• Through the ideology that ability is inborn

- Argued that ability could be measured early on in life, through the 11+

Question 10

The Comprehensive School System

Answer 10

• Introduced in many areas from 1965 onward.
• Aimed to overcome the class divide of the tripartite system and make education more meritocratic.
• 11+ was to be abolished along with Grammars and secondary moderns, to be replaced by comprehensive schools that all pupils would attend.

Question 11

Functionalist theory of the role of comprehensives: Social Integration

Answer 11

• Believe education fulfils essential functions such as social integration and meritocratic selection for future work roles.
• Argue that comprehensives promote social integration by bringing children of different social classes together in one school.

Question 12

Functionalist theory of the role of comprehensives: More meritocratic

Answer 12

• More meritocratic because it gives pupils a longer period in which to develop their abilities.

Question 13

Ford (1969)

Answer 13

• Found little social mixing between wc and mc pupils, largely because of streaming.

Question 14

Marxist theory of the role of comprehensives

Answer 14

• See education as fulfilling the needs of capitalism by reproducing and legitimising class inequality.
• Argue comprehensives are not meritocratic.
• They reproduce class inequality through steaming and labelling.
• Myth of meritocracy legitimises class inequality as the supposed equality in opportunity makes failure appear to be the fault of the individual rather than the system.