Coalition Government Education Policies From 2010 Flashcards
How did the Coalition Government view educational policies?
- Move away from Comprehensive schools + LEA
- Strongly influenced by NR ideas on reducing role of state provisions
How were Coalition educational policies reflected?
- Cuts made to education budget
- Policies emphasising academies + free schools
What are ‘Academies?’
- Publicly-funded independent schools
- Gove; Academies benefit from greater freedoms to innovate + raise standards
How do ‘Academies’ raise standards?
- Freedom from local authority control
- Ability to set own pay + staff conditions
- Freedoms around Curriculum
- Ability to transform school days
How do ‘Academies’ have greater freedoms?
- Receive funding directly from Education Funding Agency (EFA)
- 2018; 61% Of secondary schools + 21% of primary schools converted to academies
What are ‘Free Schools?’
- All-ability state-funded schools set up in response to local needs
- Free Schools programme allowed to open new schools to address demands
- Improve educational standards by taking control away from the state
How does Allen criticise ‘Free Schools?’
- Research from Sweden, 20% are free schools
- Only benefit children from highly educated families
- Sweden’s international ranking has fallen since its introduction to Charter schools in the US
How are ‘Free Schools’ exclusive?
2011 6.4% Of pupils attending free schools in Bristol were eligible for FSMs compared to 22.5% of pupils across the city as a whole
How does Ball criticise ‘Free Schools?’
Promoting academies + free schools has led to increased fragmentation/centralisation of education provision
What was the ‘E-Baccalaureate?’
- E-bac is awarded to pupils who achieve GCSEs in English, Maths, Science, Foreign language + Humanity
- Russell Group guide on making informed choices for post-16 education + identifies ‘facilitating subjects’ at A-level
What are ‘Vocational Subjects?’
- January 2012; 96% GCSE-equivalent vocational qualifications to be stripped from school league tables
- Edge Foundation; 66% Of senior teachers whose school had cuts to vocational subjects were a result of performance tables
- 85% Senior teachers agree vocational qualifications are valuable
What are ‘A-Levels?’
- 2000; Split into advanced subsidiary (AS) taken by year 12 + 13
- 2015; AS levels will survive but not count towards full A-level
- Special credit given to A-levels that are ‘facilitating subjects’
What is the ‘H.E Tuition and EMA?’
- 2010; Coalition government increased university tuition fees from 3,000 to 9,000 per year
- Scrapped EMAs
What Coalition Policies were designed to reduce educational inequality?
- Free school meals; Introduced for all children in reception + KS1
- Pupil premium; Schools with a high proportion of students eligible for FSMs were given extra funding
What are the criticisms of ‘Pupil Premium?’
- 2012 Ofsted; Pupil premium is not spent on those it’s meant to help, 1/10 Head-teachers had said it supported pupils
- Spending on school buildings were cut by 60%
- Sure start centres were closed
