education policy and Blair

1. Educational Policy
And inequality

2. New Labour
 Since 1997 Labour governments have sought to:
 reduce inequality of achievement
 promote diversity
 Education Action Zones
 Aim higher
 EMA

3. New Labour
 Tony Blair 2002 – education needs to move into the post-
comprehensive era
 Existing ‘one size fits all’ system would be scrapped
 New system built around aptitudes and needs of the
individual child

4. Specialist Schools
By 2007 about 85% of secondary
schools had become specialist
schools
There is some
evidence that
specialism has
raised
standards
2006 – 59.5% five GCSE
A-C as opposed to 47.5%
in non-specialist schools
However it is unclear whether they have reduced inequality
between social classes

5. Academies

6. Postmodernism and New Labour policies
 Kenneth Thompson (1992) – postmodern society schools
can break free from ‘oppressive uniformity’
 Education should become customised to meet the
needs of diverse communities

7. Criticisms
 Whitty (2002)
 EMA may encourage working class student to stay in
education but…
 Higher tuition fees may deter them from going to
university
 Labour’s anti-inequality policies are merely cosmetic

8. Criticisms
 Grammar schools still exist
 Private, fee paying schools still exist
 Private school even still have charitable status which
reduces the amount of tax they pay
 Polly Curtis (2007) – estimates this to be worth £100 million per
year

9. Gender
And education policy

10. Gender
 In 19th century girls were almost completely excluded
from higher education
 Under tripartite system girls had to achieve a higher mark
to pass the 11+

11. Gender
 GIST – Girls into science and technology
 WISE – Women into science and engineering

12. Ethnicity
And education policy

13. Ethnicity
 Policies aimed at abolishing inequalities between
ethnicities have gone through several phases:
1. Assimilation - 60s and 70s idea that minority groups
should assimilate into British culture
(compensatory education)

14. 2 - Multicultural education
 – Aimed to promote achievement through valuing all cultures
therefore raising the self-esteem of minority students
 Criticisms of multiculturalism
 Tokenism – only certain parts of other cultures are included in
the curriculum and it fails to challenge institutional racism
 New Right thinker think we should have assimilation into a
shared national culture

15. 3 – Social Inclusion
 Detailed monitoring of exam results by ethnicity
 Amending Race Relations Act to place a legal duty on
schools to promote diversity
 Continued funding for English as an Additional Language

16. Exam Practice
 Explain what is meant by ‘comprehensive education’
2 marks
 Suggest three factors that may explain the educational
underachievement of boys 6 marks
 Outline some of the policies that the government have
introduced to reduced class differences in educational
achievement.
12 marks