History of Education in Britain – [source wikipedia – use the links]

1870: Forster's Education Act This Act made state education available to children under the age of 10

1876: Education Act. This act made school attendance compulsory for those up to the age of 10. Once over 10 a child could leave on attaining the school-leaving certificate, also known as a Labour Certificate. had not made school attendance either compulsory or free.

1891: Education Act. The age limit for starting half time work was raised to 11. The system of working half time continued until 1918.

  • Under the 1880Elementary Education Act, education became free up to the age of 10, but was also made compulsory up until that age as well.
  • The 1891Free Education Act provided for the state payment of school fees up to ten shillings per week.
  • The 1893Elementary Education (School Attendance) Act raised the school leaving age to 11 and later to 13. The Elementary Education (Blind and Deaf Children) Act of the same year extened compulsory education to blind and deaf children, and made provision for the creation of special schools.
  • The Voluntary Schools Act of 1897 provided grants to public elementary schools not funded by school boards.
  • From April 1900higher elementary schools were recognised, providing education from the age of 10 to 15.
  • The 1902 'Balfour' Education Act created local education authorities (LEAs), who took over responsibility for board schools from the school boards. Grammar schools also became funded by the LEA. The act was of particular significance as it allowed for all schools to be funded through rates, including denominational schools.
  • The Fisher Education Act of 1918 made secondary education compulsory up to age 14 and gave responsibility for secondary education schools to the state. Under the Act, many higher elementary schools and endowed grammar school sought to become state funded central schools or secondary schools. However, most children attended primary (elementary) school up until age 14, rather than going to a separate school for secondary education.
  • After the passing of the 1929Local Government Act, Poor Law schools became state funded elementary schools.
  • The Butler Education Act of 1944 established the Tripartite System, and defined the modern split between Primary and Secondary education at age 11.
  • Education was made compulsory up to age 15 in 1947.

The Post War Period

Due to the perceived failures of the Tripartite system, the Labour government of the time requested proposals from all the UK's regions for them to move from the Tripartite system to the Comprehensive System. Note that this was an optional reform for the regions, and as of late 2003 some regions still have the Tripartite System. Education was made compulsory up to age 16 in 1972.

Following the 1979 General Election, the Conservative party regained power in central government, and made two main changes in this period:

  1. New Vocationalism was expanded (Labour had done some small efforts beforehand, but the conservatives expanded it considerably). This was seen as an effort to reduce the high youth unemployment figures, which were seen as one of the causes of the rioting that was relatively commonplace at the end of the seventies.
  2. The Assisted Places Scheme was introduced in 1980, where gifted children who could not afford to go to fee-paying schools would be given free places in those schools if they could pass the school's entrance exam.

The Education Reform Act of 1988

The 1988 Education Reform Act made quite a few changes to the system of education. These changes were aimed at creating an education 'market' so that schools were competing against each other for 'customers' (pupils), and that bad schools would lose pupils and close, leaving only the good schools open.

The reforms are as follows:

  • The National Curriculum was introduced, which made it compulsory for schools to teach certain subjects, as opposed to the choice of subjects being up to the school as had previously been the case.
  • National curriculum assessments at the Key Stages 1 to 3 (ages 7, 11, 14 respectively) through what were formerly called SATs. At Key Stage 4 (age 16), the assessments were done with the GCSE exam.
  • League tables started to be compiled showing statistics for each school, which are published in newspapers so parents can see which schools are doing well in each area of the country and which aren't.
  • Formula funding was introduced, which basically meant that the more children a school could attract to it, the more money it got.
  • Open Enrolment and choice for parents were brought back, so that parents could (within limits) choose what school their children went to.
  • Schools could, if enough of their pupils' parents agreed, opt out of local government control, becoming grant maintained schools and receiving funding direct from central government. The enticement for schools was that the government offered more money than the school would get from the local authority, and this was seen as a political move given that local authorities were not run by the Conservative party as a rule, and central government was.

New Labour's Educational Policies from 1997

Following the 1997 General Election, the Labour party regained power in central government. New Labour's political ideology meant that most of the changes introduced by the Conservatives during their time in power stayed.

The following changes happened:

  • The previous Labour focus on the Comprehensive system was shifted to a focus on tailoring education to each child's ability. Critics see this as reminiscent of the original intentions of the Tripartite system.
  • Grant maintained status was abolished, with GM schools being given the choice of rejoining the local authority as a maintained community school, or becoming a Foundation school.
  • Labour expanded a policy started by the Conservatives of creating specialist schools. This new type of secondary school teaches the National Curriculum subjects plus a few specialist branches of knowledge (e.g. business studies) not found in most other schools. These schools are allowed to select 10% of their pupils.
  • Numbers: In 1997 there were 196 of these schools. In August 2002 there were 1000. By 2006 the plan is to have 2000, and the goal is to make all secondary schools specialist eventually.
  • The concept of Beacon schools was introduced, where in any area of deprivation a school that is doing well is marked as a Beacon school, and shares its ideas and methods with other less successful schools.
  • City Academies were introduced. These are new schools, built on the site of, or taking over from existing failing schools. A city academy is an independent school within the state system. It is outside the control of the local education authority and set up with substantial funding from interested third parties, which might be businesses, charities or private individuals.
  • Education Action Zones were introduced, which are deprived areas run by an action forum of people within that area with the intention of make that area's schools better.
  • Vocational qualifications were renamed/restructured as follows:
  • GNVQs became Vocational GCSEs and AVCEs.
  • NVQs scope expanded so that a degree-equivalent NVQ was possible.
  • The New Deal was introduced, which made advisors available to long-term unemployed (in the UK this is defined as being unemployed for more than 6 months) to give help and money to those who want to go back into Education.
  • Introduced Literacy and Numeracy hours into schools, and set targets for literacy and numeracy.
  • Set Truancy targets.
  • Set a maximum class size of 30 for 5-7 year olds.
  • Introduced the EMA, which is paid to those between 16 and 18 as an enticement to remain in full-time education and get A-Levels/AVCEs.
  • Introduced Curriculum 2000, which reformed the Further Education system into the current structure of AS levels, A2 levels and Key Skills.
  • Abolished the Assisted Places Scheme.
  • A report was commissioned, led by the former chief-inspector of schools, Mike Tomlinson, into reform of the curriculum and qualifications structure for 14–19 year-olds. The report was published on October 18, 2004 and recommended the introduction of a diploma that would bring together both vocational and academic qualifications and ensure that all pupils had a basic set of core skills. It is proposed that the current qualifications would evolve into this diploma over the next decade, whether the government will follow the recommendations is yet to be seen — the Conservative Party have already introduced alternative proposals to return to norm-referencing in A-levels rather than the current system of criterion-referencing.
  • In 2003 a green paper was published entitled Every Child Matters. It built on existing plans to strengthen childrens services and focused on four key areas:
  • Increasing the focus on supporting families and carers as the most critical influence on children's lives
  • Ensuring necessary intervention takes place before children reach crisis point and protecting children from falling through the net
  • Addressing the underlying problems identified in the report into the death of [[Victoria Climbi]] - weak accountability and poor integration
  • Ensuring that the people working with children are valued, rewarded and trained

The green paper prompted a wide debate about services for children, young people and families. There followed a wide consultation with those working in children's services, and with parents, children and young people. Following this, the Government published Every Child Matters: the Next Steps, and passed the Children Act 2004, providing the legislative spine for developing more effective and accessible services focused around the needs of children, young people and families. Every Child Matters: Change for Children was published in November 2004.

  • Historical development in England and Wales:
  • 1870 Elementary Education Act (Forster)
  • 1918 Education Act (Fisher)
  • 1944 Education Act (Butler): Tripartite system. Based on work of Burt.
  • Grammar (academic)
  • Secondary Modern (practical, general, non-academic)
  • Technical (practical, higher level) - not fully implemented
  • 1965 Circular 10/65 (Comprehensive schooling)
  • 1975 Williams (Labour): Widespread introduction of Comprehensive schooling
  • 1980 Education Act (Assisted Places scheme)
  • 1988 Education Reform Act (National Curriculum, Key Stage testing, Local Management of Schools, Grant-maintained status ("opting-out").