Topic Summaries

Education policies in the UK

A-Level > Sociology > AQA > A Level Sociology Topic Summaries > Education > Education policies in the UK
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Exam overview
Year and government Policy/Act Description Perspective and key thinkers Evaluation
1944 Conservative The Education Act led to the tripartite system defining three types of schools (grammar, secondary modern, and technical)
  • Students would be allocated to one type of school based on their 11+ exam results.
  • Selection based on ability
  • Grammar schools were mostly middle/upper-class, and secondary moderns mostly working-class.
  • Functionalists: favoured its efficient role allocation
  • Marxists: criticised it for reproducing class inequality
  • Reproduced inequalities
  • Girls needed higher 11+ scores
  • 11 is too young to decide/limit pupils’ future; unfair for students who struggle in early years
  • Tracking (i.e. separating by ability) now understood to be harmful
  • Low standards in secondary moderns
1965 Labour Comprehensive education
  • Abolished the 11+ exam
  • Adopted an ‘all students under one roof’ philosophy
  • Non-selective education to strengthen equality of opportunity
  • Functionalised: favoured the promotion of social integration and fairer allocation of resources
  • Marxists: streaming and labelling still reproduced inequality
  • Relied on banding/streaming within schools instead of between schools, so still reproduced inequality
  • Working-class pupils still underachieved
  • Limited parental choice
1976 Labour Vocational education
  • Increased vocational training
  • New Right: favoured for improving skills for the economy
  • Low status qualification; seen as ‘second-class’ education
1988 Conservative Education Reform Act: marketisation and standards
  • League tables
  • Formula funding
  • Parental choice
  • National curriculum
  • New Right: favoured the promotion of competition of choice
  • 👤 Gewirtz (1995): criticised the myth of parentocracy (i.e. schools compete for pupils, parents are customers) due to selection by mortgage
  • Middle-class pupils benefit most
  • Working-class pupils disadvantaged by lack of cultural and economic capital
  • 👤 Bartlett (1993): leads to creamskimming and silt-shifting effects
1997–2010 Labour Equality of opportunity
  • Education Action Zones
  • ‘Gifted and Talented’ programs
  • Education Maintenance Allowance (EMA) paid to working-class families
  • Sure Start program supported preschool children
  • Literacy and Numeracy Hour
  • 👥 Gillborn and Youdell (2000): four types of equality: participation, access, circumstance, and outcome
  • EMA helped working-class children stay in education and pursue higher education (though this was later abolished)
  • Gifted and Talented risked triage and reinforced inequalities
2010 Coalition Academies, free schools, and pupil premium program
  • More school autonomy
  • Funding for disadvantaged pupils
  • New Right: favoured its increased efficiency
  • Pupil premium misuse
  • Free schools often fail to take disadvantage students
  • University fees tripled, deterring working-class pupils
2010 Coalition Privatisation and austerity cuts
  • Endogenous privatisation: education market inside the state sector
  • Exogenous privatisation: outsourcing to private companies
  • Scrapped EMA and cut funding to education
  • 👥 Ball and Youdell (2007): critiqued the Cola-isation (i.e. commercialisation) of schools where sponsors effectively buy access to advertise to pupils
  • Marxists: critiqued private firms cherry-picking profitable services
  • Increases inequality
  • Dependence on corporate interests
  • Failing schools were turned into academies, but no evidence that they improve student outcomes
2015 Conservative Globalisation
  • PISA League tables
  • International policy borrowing
  • Expansion of private schools and international students
  • New Right: encourages competition and policy innovation
  • Functionalists: raised standards through competition
  • Marxists: global corporations setting agendas (👤 Spring, 2008)
  • Importend policies not always suitable for UK cultural context
  • Risk of digital divide exacerbating inequality
  • Access to international schools often limited to wealthy elites
2020 Conservative COVID-19 response
  • School lockdowns, home learning throughout 2020–2021
  • GCSE and A-Level exams cancelled
  • Catch Up payments to schools
  • National tutoring program
  • 👤 Tarabini (2022): vital social functions of schools could not be achieved by distance learning
  • National Foundation of Education Research (NFER) found students were 3 months behind on average due to COVID disruptions; this was worse in more deprived schools
  • Reinforced inequalities and led to an enduring ‘COVID gap,’ especially between wealthy tech-savvy schools and underresourced ones (e.g. pupils without stable internet access)
  • Potential for bias or inflated teacher/ predicted grades
  • Catch Up Premium funding insufficient to rectify lost learning

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