Marketisation and Privatisation of Education

Question 1

What is the new right of education?

Answer 1

State schools are inefficient

Marketisation of education to run like a business

Competition between schools

Raising standards everywhere

Parental choice - parentocracy

Question 2

What is marketisation of education?

Answer 2

Where schools should be run like a business and parents should have a choice in the school they send their children to

Question 3

Why does marketisation create competition between schools?

Answer 3

Because only the best schools with excellent exam results will attract new parents and students for funding

Question 4

Why should competition raise standards at all schools?

Answer 4

Because every school will work hard to improve teaching and exam results to appeal to new parents and students

Question 5

Why does marketisation create parentocracy?

Answer 5

Because parents make a decision about which school to send their child to

Question 6

Why do Marxists believe parentocracy is a myth?

Answer 6

Because only middle-class parents have greater choice because they have educational capital, which means they know how schools work

Question 7

What is the educational reform act about?

Answer 7

Marketisation of schools

Parental choice

Formula funding - more pupils = more funding

League tables

Ofsted

Competition between schools

National curriculum

SATs

Question 8

What does the educational reform act reflect the principles of?

Answer 8

Reflects the principles of the new right view of the marketisation of education because it reduces direct state control over education and increases competition between schools and parental choice of school

Question 9

Why should parentocracy raise standards in schools?

Answer 9

Because all schools will be competing for new parents and students and only the best schools will attract new parents and pupils and therefore will gain more funding

Question 10

Why do Marxists argue the marketisation of education reproduces inequality through league tables and cream skimming?

Answer 10

Because the most successful schools at the top of the league tables ‘cream-skim’ their students selecting middle class students who will achieve excellent exam results so they can stay at the top of the league table

Question 11

What policies were introduced to reduce inequalities in education?

Answer 11

Educational maintenance allowance (EMA) 16-18 year olds

Education action zones

Aim higher

Raising school leaving age to 18

National literacy strategy

Question 12

What policies were introduced to create an education market?

Answer 12

Creation of specialist schools

City academics

Question 13

Why might the introduction of educational maintenance allowance reduce inequality in education?

Answer 13

It allows everyone the chance to continue their education as it funds people from the ages of 16-18 from low paying backgrounds

Question 14

Why might aim higher reduce inequality in education?

Answer 14

Because it raises aspirations of groups who are under-represented in higher education and will encourage them to work hard to gain qualifications (working class)

Question 15

Why might the creation of educational action zones reduce inequality?

Answer 15

It provides deprived areas with educational resources to help improve their educational success

Question 16

Why did the introduction of university fees create social inequality?

Answer 16

The working class was less likely to be able to afford the fees and take out a loan whereas the middle class would so they would be able to continue their education to get better qualifications and therefore better jobs

Question 17

Who were the coalition government?

Answer 17

Conservative majority and liberal democratic minority

Question 18

What policies did the Coalition government introduce to create an education market?

Answer 18

Free schools

Converter academies

Question 19

What policies did the Coalition government introduce to reduced inequality?

Answer 19

Free school meals up to year 2

Pupil premium - extra funding for pupils from low-income households

Question 20

What are free schools?

Answer 20

A type of school that is free from control of the local authority and can be set up by anyone

Question 21

Why did the creation of free schools give parents greater choice?

Answer 21

They continue a system of parentocracy and they are set up in response to the demands and wishes of parents and local people who are not happy with the current schools in their area

Question 22

Why might free schools reproduce class inequality and support the Marxist view that parentocracy is a myth?

Answer 22

Free schools increase educational inequalities as they are full of white middle class students whose parents have all 4 types of capital and will demand a better education for their children

Question 23

What is a converter academy?

Answer 23

A school that becomes independent from local authority control and are given more freedom and control over the running of their school and receive funding directly from the government and run much like a private business

Question 24

Why do converter academies widen the education market?

Answer 24

They give parents another choice of school to send their children to

Question 25

What is privatisation?

Answer 25

Services that were once owned and provided by the state are now transferred to private companies

Question 26

What does the privatisation of education reflect?

Answer 26

Reflects a new right view that private companies can deliver services more efficiently than the state and this will raise standards everywhere in education

Question 27

What aspects of education do private businesses deliver?

Answer 27

Teacher supply agencies

Exam boards

School transport

School meals

Provision and management of ICT software

Payroll and Human Resources

Management of schools by academy chains

Construction and management of new buildings, rented to the state for private profit

Question 28

Why might privatised exam boards may reproduce social class inequalities?

Answer 28

The working class students suffer from material deprivation so they cannot afford remarks

Question 29

Why might teacher supply agencies be seen as a business?

Answer 29

They charge schools around £180 per day for a supply teacher and are therefore profit making businesses

Question 30

Why might privatised teacher supply agencies reproduce social class inequalities?

Answer 30

Many schools cannot afford the high fees of supply agencies and they therefore often employ cover supervisors who are usually unqualified