New Right Policies 2010 Flashcards
Overview
These policies have been strongly influenced by neoliberal & New Right ideas about reducing the role of the state in the provision of education through marketisation & privatisation & continue with our current Conservative government elected in 2015.
New Style Academies
From 2010, all schools were encouraged to leave local authority control & become academies. Funding was taken from local authority budgets & given directly to academies by central governments, & academies were given control over their curriculum. By 2012, over half of all secondary schools had converted to academy status.
New Style Academies A03
Whereas Labour’s original city academies targeted disadvantaged schools & areas, the Coalition government, by allowing any school to become an academy, removed the focus on reducing inequality which many are critical of.
Free Schools
Although funded by the state, free schools are set up & run by parents, teachers, faith organisations or businesses rather than the local authority.
(AO3) Supporters claim they give parents & teachers the opportunity to create a new school if they are unhappy with the state schools in their local area. However, there is evidence in England that free schools take fewer disadvantaged pupils than nearby schools which will lead to further educational inequality for the working classes
The pupil premium
extra money per head allocated for pupils who come from poorer homes, defined as those eligible for free school meals. This aimed to encourage schools to attract & work harder for poorer pupils, with the aim of reducing social inequalities in education.
AO3 However, Ofsted found that in many cases the Pupil Premium is not spent on those it is supposed to help. Only 1 in 10 head teachers said that it had significantly changed how they supported pupils from disadvantaged backgrounds. Furthermore, part of the coalition government’s ‘austerity’ programme, spending on many areas of education has been cut
