Education (1918-1979)

Question 1

Education before 1918

Answer 1

• Provided by LEAs - created in 1902 Balfour act
• Local Authorities…

Paid teachers’ wages.
Provided FSM for poor children.
Ensured upkeep of school buildings.
Monitored teaching standards and qualifications.

Question 2

1918 Fisher Act

Answer 2

• Based on wartime Lewis Report.
• Raised school leaving age to 14.
• Proposed changes to tertiary education - didn’t happen.
• Curriculum changes.
• Costs of education transferred from LEAs to central govt - CENTRALISATION OF EDUCATION.

Question 3

Educational Provision - 1918-1939:

Two types of school

Answer 3

Elementary school: Basic education until 14.

Secondary + Tech schools: For kids up to 16.

Question 4

Educational Provision - 1918-1939:

1926 Hadow Committee recommendations

Answer 4

• Abolish elementary: Primary and secondary schools with transfer age at 11.
• Raise school-leaving age to 15

Question 5

The recommendations from the ____ Hadow _________ were never adopted.

Answer 5

The recommendations from the 1926 Hadow Committee were never adopted.

Question 6

Educational Provision - 1918-1939:

Elementary schools varied in quality

Answer 6

• They were free
• Learning was done by rote
• Class sizes reached 50/60 kids.

Question 7

Educational Provision - 1918-1939:

Secondary Education

Answer 7

• Preserve of middle class children.
• Compulsory up to 14.
• 1939: Only 13% of WC children over 13 in secondary.
• Uneven educational provision:
  1931 - 5 million in primary vs 600,000 in secondary.

Question 8

Access to education for working class - interwar

Answer 8

• Couldn’t access same education as middle class.
• Grammar schools were unaffordable - transport, uniform etc…
• IMPACT: Working class were stuck in cycles of poverty

Question 9

Changes in education 1939-1944:

Impact of WW2

Answer 9

1942 Beveridge Report:
- Key cause behind 1944 Butler Act

• ‘Ignorance’ was one of the 5 big evils - armed forces had to teach basic literacy and numeracy to lower ranks.

Question 10

1944 Butler Act

Answer 10

• Created by Rab Butler - Education secretary.
• Created a tripartite system.
• Compulsory education up to 15.
• Secondary no longer fee paying - paid for through taxes (govt took control).

Question 11

Tripartite System:

Grammar schools

Answer 11

Grammar schools:
- Academic curriculum for those who passed 11+ exams.

• No extra spaces for girls despite them doing better.
• Only 20% went here.

Question 12

Tripartite System:

Secondary Modern

Answer 12

Secondary Moderns:
- Educated the majority of the working class.

• Received fewer resources and less well-qualified teachers.
• 75% of students went here.

Question 13

Tripartite System:

Technical Schools

Answer 13

Tech schools:
- Educate the middle class for life in scientific or engineering work.

• Few were built due to cost.
• Intake never more than 3%.

Question 14

Effect of the Butler Act

Answer 14

• WC children had a free and compulsory secondary education.
• Girls now able to attend secondary education.
• A cause of some social change in the 1960s and 1970s.

Question 15

Criticisms of Butler Act

Answer 15

- Labour left said it deepened class divisions:
Sent majority of WC to poorly funded secondary moderns.

Was socially divisive.

• Didn’t achieve parity of esteem.
• No extra places for girls at grammars despite them performing better on 11+ exams.
• Secondary moderns were underfunded.
• Few tech schools were built.

Question 16

Crowther Report, 1959

Answer 16

Proposals:
- Raise leaving age to 16

• More education provision for over 16s - Eg, creating more county colleges.
• Get more highly qualified teachers into the profession.

Question 17

Newsom Report, 1963

Answer 17

• Found serious failings in inner-city schools.
  Recommended:
• More practical subjects.
• More inclusive curriculum - sex education for example.
• New focus on researching teaching methods.

Question 18

Development of Comprehensives - 1964-1970

Answer 18

• Labour wanted Comprehensives to dominate.
• 1965 Education Act:

Informed LEAs to dismantle tripartite system - not forced, only encouraged.

Question 19

Development of Comprehensives - Under Heath

Answer 19

• Both parties created comps and abolished grammar schools.
• Many Tories fiercely opposed to comps - Eg, Margaret Thatcher.
• As Education Secretary, Thatcher approved over 3,286 comps to open.
• Thatcher authorised more comprehensives than any other secretary.

Question 20

Education Act, 1976

Answer 20

• Reiterated 1965 demands.
• Wilson and Callaghan had the chance to end funding for comprehensives - little enthusiasm to abolish grammars completely (didn’t want MC to turn against them).
• By 1979, comprehensives were the dominant form of secondary education.

Question 21

Progressive Education

Answer 21

Child-centred learning emerged.
- Partly as a result of the 1967 Plowden Report:

Ban corporal punishment - make primary more caring and less strict.

Question 22

1969 Black Papers (Tory)

Answer 22

Attack on Progressive Education:
- Criticised decline in teacher’s authority in the classroom.

• HOWEVER, didn’t advocate a return to strict and repetitive learning.

Question 23

1976 Callaghan’s Yellow Book

Answer 23

Attack on Progressive Education:
- School discipline had declined.

• Curricula didn’t prepare students to take up productive roles in the economy.

Question 24

1976 Ruskin Speech

Answer 24

• Progressive education had some merits, but failed when applied incorrectly.
• Didn’t want to return to rote learning.
• Called for a national curriculum.
• Teachers should be more closely scrutinised and inspected.

Question 25

Comprehensive vs Grammar statistics

1955 vs 1980

Answer 25

1955:
Comps = 16

Grammar = 1,180

1980:
Comps = 3,297
Grammar = 224