Educational PolicyAnd inequality

New Labour Since 1997 Labour governments have sought to:

reduce inequality of achievement promote diversity

Education Action Zones Aim higher EMA

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

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

Academies

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

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

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

Gender And education policy

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+

Gender

GIST – Girls into science and technology

WISE – Women into science and engineering

Ethnicity And education policy

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)

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

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

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