Conservative policies 1979-97

Question 1

What was the 1988 Education act?

Answer 1

an act introduced by the conservative government that marks the start of marketisation.
Details of the act
Marketisation and Parentocracy (schools compete for pupils parents are like consumers)
League Tables – so parents can see how well schools are doing and make a choice.
OFSTED – to regulate and inspect schools.
National Curriculum – so that all schools are teaching the same basic subjects
Formula Funding – funding based on numbers of pupils – which encourages schools to raise standards to increase demand.

Question 2

what were the aims of the 1988 education act?

Answer 2

To introduce free market principles (more competition) into the education system
to introduce greater parental choice and control over state education
Raising standards in education.
These are the aims associated with Neoliberalism and The New Right.

Question 3

League tables and OFSTED:

Answer 3

League tables are a way of ranking schools based on criteria such as academic performance, student-teacher ratios, and a school’s facilities. they highlight how a school is performing, they increase parentocracy and marketisation because if a school performs higher they are more likely to have more students.

OFSTED is an independent body used to asses how well a school is performing and highlights what they need to improve on, this encourages marketisation because a school will improve standards tro get a higher rating on OFSTED

Question 4

National Curriculum:

Answer 4

the national curriculum tells schools what they must teach and gives teachers a must teach list, ensures everyone is getting the same education, i.e teaches British history

Question 5

Open Enrolment:

Answer 5

This means a school must have a student regardless of class, gender or ethnicity, which ensures a working class student can go to a good school.

Question 6

Formula funding:

Answer 6

funding based on numbers of pupils – which encourages schools to raise standards to increase demand.

Question 7

evaluation of conservative policies:

Answer 7

Competition did increase standards – results gradually improved throughout the 1990s.
Selection by mortgage – the house prices in the catchment areas of the best schools increased, pricing out poorer parents.
Cream skimming – the best schools tended to select the best students, who were predominantly middle class.
The middle classes had more effective choice because of their higher levels of cultural capital.
League tables have been criticised for encouraging teaching to the test.