Education

Question 1

The significance of the 1918 Education Act

Answer 1

Increased school leaving age to 14

Divided the curriculum between ‘practical instruction’ for less able children to prepare them for the workplace and ‘advanced instruction’ for more able children

Control over school financing was centralised from Local Education Authorities to the Government

Resulted in an improvement in teachers’ salaries and pensions, which the government hoped would improve school standards.

Question 2

Education provision early

Answer 2

Elementary schools providing children with a basic education till 14 which was free
Secondary and technical schools educated children to 16
Some local authorities only provided elementary education of variable quality
Class sizes could be 50 and sometimes 60

Question 3

Hadow Report

Answer 3

1926
Recommended the abolition of elementary schools and the division into primary and secondary schools with children transferring at 11
Raising the school leaving age to 15
Did not happen due to cost and the responsibility of education being devolved to local authorities

Question 4

Inequality in education up to the war

Answer 4

On the eve of WW2 only 13% of working-class children aged 13+ were still in school
1931 - 5.5 million children in elementary schools and 600,000 in secondary education; university was 30,000 – secondary schools were mainly for the middle class
1931 only 20% of children were in some form of secondary education with many leaving at 14

Question 5

Grammar schools under the 1918 act

Answer 5

Positives - grant-funded and operated by the local authorities. They charged fees, but brighter children could be awarded scholarships. The schools often used entrance exams to select pupils. Offered a curriculum based on fee-paying public schools and provided an excellent education; places were highly sought after.

Negatives - Based on wealth as much as equality of opportunity as poorer parents often could not afford to keep their bright offspring at school beyond the age of fourteen. Even if they did get a scholarship - they needed them to earn a wage to help support the family.

Question 6

The impact of the war

Answer 6

The Beveridge Report of 1942 identified ignorance as one of the great ‘evils’ that affected Britain.

Branches of the armed services had to teach basic literacy and numeracy to the lower ranks.

The war required educated troops as the technological complexity of modern warfare had dramatically increased.

An educated civilian workforce and a civilian defence and auxiliary service was also required, not just during the war but after it as well.

Question 7

What did the Butler Act do

Answer 7

1944
State secondary schools no longer charged fees instead the cost would be paid out of general taxation

The leaving age was extended to 15

Introduced the tripartite system

Question 8

Grammar schools under the Butler Act

Answer 8

Advantage - intended to make an academic curriculum open to all children who passed an 11+ exam and, particularly in less affluent areas, were to provide a route into greater opportunity for many working-class children

Disadvantage - Opponents of grammar schools in the Labour Party argued that the Act deepened class divisions by sending most working-class children to secondary moderns – most children who did not pass the eleven- plus exam found themselves joining secondary modern schools instead.

Question 9

Secondary modern schools

Answer 9

Advantage - educated the majority of lower middle-class children and working-class children. The best ones offered innovative curricula appropriate for their intake and developed close ties with local college so pupils could transfer onto vocational courses and embark on work placements. 75% of children attended in the post-war period

Disadvantage - generally received fewer resources and had less well- qualified teachers. In 1964 only 318 of their total intake were entered for ‘A’ levels.

Question 10

Technical schools

Answer 10

Advantage - intended to educate the middle0classes for a life in scientific or engineering work; to create a technocratic class who could help the country to adapt in an age of high technology and nuclear power.

Disadvantage - did not expect how few technical schools would be built because of the cost. Their intake was never more than 3% of secondary school student

Question 11

Developing comprehensive education 1950s

Answer 11

There had been a growth in comprehensive schools in mainly Labour LA’s

Included all children, regardless of ability – offer equality of educational opportunity and prevent children being stigmatised at the age of eleven.

Would give pupils the opportunity to transfer between streams of attainment and different courses – more flexible and would be able to offer a greater variety of courses with more resources.

Question 12

The Crowther Report

Answer 12

1959
Recommended:
Raising the school leaving age to 16 (didn’t happen till 1972 although attempted in 1964 but harsh economic situation made this not possible)
Created county college for post-16 education
Create more technical colleges
Attract sixth-form teachers of the ‘highest intellectual caliber’
Widening number of sixth-form courses from the purely vocational to subjects such as art and humanities
Enabling pupils who were capable of taking O levels to do so

Question 13

The Newsom Report

Answer 13

1963
Recommended:
New focus on researching teaching methods to help children who struggled at school.
More attention to teaching deprived children personal and social development; and sex education was essential.
More practical subjects should be provided for lower ability pupils and schools should not make pupils sit exams when inappropriate.

Question 14

Thatcher as education secretary under Heath

Answer 14

Instructed no more requests from LEAs for mergers of grammars and secondary moderns would be considered
Increased funding of direct grant schools
Spoke in favour of the right to choose private education
Authorised more comprehensive mergers than any other secretary. Between 1970-1974 she was presented with 3,286
By 1979 comprehensive schools were the main form of schooling

Question 15

Wilson and Callaghan on education

Answer 15

Wilson knew ending funding for non-comprehensive schools would be popular with the left-wing of the Labour Party. So, he proposed ending funding for direct grant schools and making them comprehensive (even though they offered half their places free to working-and lower- middle-class families). Although this was supported by teachers as it would remove elitism.
In reality, grant schools were forced to become private and charge fees meaning the low-income pupils could no longer afford to attend.

1976 Education Act reiterated the 1965 demand for LEAs to submit proposals for making their schools comprehensive, but did not compel them to act as they did not wanted to become unpopular with the middle-classes over an issues that was not central to their political agenda

Question 16

The shifting school provisions from 1955-1975

Answer 16

In 1955 there were 16 comprehensive schools and over 3500 secondary modern schools.
In 1975 there was over 2,600 comprehensive schools and just over 1200 secondary modern schools
In 1955 there were 1180 grammar schools and in 1975 this fell to 566
In 1955 there were 302 technical schools and in 1975 this fell to 17

Question 17

Progressive education 60s and 70s successful

Answer 17

The Plowden Report (1967) recommended:
Banning corporal punishment giving children much more freedom within the classroom (instead of forcing them to sit on chairs for long periods of time)
Encouraging teachers to help and advice, rather than lecture pupils.
As, academics believed a more friendly environment would improve pupil attainment

Some schools that practised progressive education had outstanding educational results. They combined allowing children to have more freedom in the classroom and more of a say in how the school was run with extra planning and organisation.

Question 18

Progressive education 60s and 70s failed

Answer 18

Other schools produced chaotic classrooms where very little was taught, and even though they were a small minority of Britain’s comprehensives, the press publicised the most extreme examples of educational failing and ideological interference.

William Tyndale School (1974-5) removed all rules allowing pupils to choose what they wanted to do. This resulted in negative press and parents pulling their children out of the school

A small minority of teachers saw progressive education to introduce political ideas into the classroom. Within the National Union of Teachers, a group of radical left-wing teachers, the Rank-and-File group, which had over 2,000 members in 1975, saw it as an opportunity to undermine Britain’s class system.

Question 19

The Black Paper

Answer 19

1969
The first major negative reaction to progressive education

A series of essays criticising the decline in the teacher’s authority in the classroom but neither man advocated returning to the learning that was common in the 1950s.

Question 20

Yellow Book

Answer 20

1976
Callaghan ordered a report into Britain’s education system
The findings of the report suggested that progressive education methods had caused immense issues in teaching.
School discipline had declined many school curricula did not prepare pupils to take up productive roles in the economy and the government and the public had too little say over what went on in schools.

Question 21

The Ruskin speech

Answer 21

Based on the Yellow Book findings Callaghan made a speech suggesting:
Progressive education had some merits and achieved good results when in the hands of skilled teachers, but failed when it was applied incorrectly
Did not wish to return to the rote learning of the 50s
There should be a national curriculum that all schools should follow
Teachers should be more closely scrutinised and inspected

Question 22

University in the 1920s and 1930s grew

Answer 22

Became far more accessible to Britain’s middle classes and to women, meaning that by 1918 there was a diverse and expanding university education provision.

Provincial universities took more middle-class and bright working-class students – funded mainly through grants and scholarships from LEAs and charities. All grants were very competitive

A common route was through government- funded teacher-training grants – ‘Recognised Students in Training’ (RSTs) agreed to follow their degree with postgraduate teacher training with a commitment to teaching after uni.

Question 23

University in the 1920s and 1930s did not grow

Answer 23

Unis like Oxford and Cambridge remained largely for the privileged

The government did not really interfere with the amount of financial aid offered normally amounted to about one-third of university funds. The rest came from fees, endowments and so on – tended to exclude working-class uni hopefuls

Question 24

The Percy and Barlow Report were influencial

Answer 24

Over twenty new universities were opened in the 1960s and by the end of the decade a revolution in British university education appeared to have taken place.

Question 25

The Percy and Barlow Report were not influencial

Answer 25

By 1961, despite the huge increase in school pupils only 15% of applications to university were successful.

Despite these recommendations, by the 1960s there were still far too few science courses and many universities prioritised arts subjects, indicating that universities were institutions that were resistant to change.

Question 26

University expansion in the 60s and 70s was significant

Answer 26

1961 – Robbins Committee recommended a goal of five times more student places by 1980, unis must make sure that students were well-educated, academics should continue to carry out research and teach a sense of common culture and citizenship.

The University of East Sussex and Kent opened in 1961/1965 – modern buildings and architecture and a multi-disciplinary approach to learning, enabling students to experience several different subjects – result of Robbins’ recommendations

1970 – further eleven universities – Labour and Conservative both expanded welfare state to pay for tuition fees and student grants.

The Open University 1971
People could study degrees at home and any age could become qualified
Heath considered scrapping the OU, but decided against it, fearing the political fallout.

Universities in the 1970s
1970–1974 – Thatcher invested in Britain’s university sector and increased grants by 40% throughout Heath’s government.
Significant increase in the numbers of students earning degrees between 1920 and 1980.

Question 27

University expansion in the 60s and 70s was not significant

Answer 27

1979 – slowdown in the increase of numbers enrolling at universities, but not an overall decline.

1981 target was three-quarters of a million students in higher education, and it was missed by over 100,000 – overall increase in student numbers was enormous.

Question 28

University had a positive impact on society

Answer 28

People from modest backgrounds could get qualifications that let them to join professions such as law, engineering, medicine and finance, which was only possible because of state subsidies available to universities

Increase in the number of institutions. By 1971 there were 53 universities and 30 polytechnics, and by 1974 there were half a million students in higher education.

Student funding increased from the 1950s, enabling students to pay tuition fees to universities – also, live on grants that covered the basic costs of food and accommodation. The lack of financial risk to the student involved in studying for a university degree was a powerful incentive

Question 29

University did not have a positive impact on society

Answer 29

Pupils from private schools like Eton and Harrow were over-represented at elite universities such as Oxford, Cambridge.

While participation in higher education increased dramatically, there was still a sense of elitism in British education and alumni from traditional universities and public schools had influence way beyond their numbers.

While the educational system may be based on equality of opportunity, this was not necessarily the case in practice and educational success that leads to opportunities at the highest managerial and professional levels were still dependent far more on privilege and position.