education policies - education act and marketisation 1988

Question 1

what were the main aims of the education act and marketisation

Answer 1

the process of introducing market forces of consumer choice and competition between suppliers into areas run by the start such as education

Question 2

how can education be compared to a market

Answer 2

reducing direct state control over education

increasing competition between schools and parental choice of schools

Question 3

what things did the education act introduce

Answer 3

league tables - parents can make a choice based on school performance

OFSTED- inspections to regulate schools

national curriculum- all schools teach the same subjects

formula funding- funding based on number of students

new vocationalism - training in work based / work related subjects

marketisation and parentocracy - schools compete for pupils parents are consumers

Question 4

strengths of the education act 1988

Answer 4

have worked to improve GCSE results

principle of competition has been applied internationally in the form of PISA tables

Question 5

Criticisms of the education act 1988

Answer 5

curriculum in schools has become more narrow
spend more time teaching assessed subjects rather than creative subjects like music and art

schools increasingly teach to get the best scores on tests in order to get good on the league tables

rich parents have more choice of schools
transport costs- middle class parents are more likely to be able to get their children to a wider range of schools

cultural captital gives the middle class more choice
Ball - middle class parents are skilled choosers and are more comfortable in dealing with school networks
ball- working class parents are disconnected choosers as they lack cultural and social capital and tend to just settle on the local school

polarisation
inequality of education opportunity increases - the best schools get better and the worse get worse
best schools become oversubscribed which means they pick the best pupils which gives them better results for next year

worst schools end up with pupils that no one wants making the school worse and worse leading them to a sink school