THE COMPREHENSIVE SCHOOL SYSTEM

Question 1

When was the Comprehensive System introduced and with what aims?

Answer 1

a. From 1965 onwards

b. It aimed to overcome the class divide from the Tripartite System and to make education more meritocratic

Question 2

What was to be abolished?

Answer 2

a. The 11+, grammar schools and secondary moderns

Question 3

What was the problem concerning the grammar schools?

Answer 3

It was left to the local education authority to ‘go comprehensive’ and not all did so. As a result, the grammar-secondary modern divide still exists today.

Question 4

Functionalist Theories of Comprehensives:

Answer 4

a. Comprehensives promote social integration by bringing students of different social classes together in one school, however…
- Ford (1969): There was little social class mixing due to streaming
b. The Comprehensives are more meritocratic as they give pupils a longer period in which to develop and show their abilities

Question 5

Marxist Theories of Comprehensives:

Answer 5

a. Comprehensives reproduce class inequality due to the practice of streaming and labelling
b. The ‘myth of meritocracy’ legitimates class inequality by making unequal achievement seem fair and just, because failure looks like it’s the fault of the individual rather than the system