The Education system of England and Wales underwent a number of important changes since 1944. This essay seeks to concentrate on these major changes describing the rationale and impact they had on the British education system.
The essay will commence by focusing on the1944 Education Act, as it was "the most important piece of educational legislation since 1902" (Gosden, 1983:3). There was a great need for this Act, because the Second World War caused considerable disruption to the educational system. As Dunford and Sharp point out, "evacuation, staff shortages and suspension of building programmes all created their own problems. War also brought important changes in social attitudes, and [...] there was a determination for a better future" (Dunford and Sharp, 1990:17). Therefore there was a need to remodel the current education system "in order to ensure that every child would go to a secondary school" (Gosden, 1983:1). Planning for reconstruction of education culminated in the Education Act of 1944, which is also known as the Butler Act.
The 1944 Act abolished the Board of Education replacing it with a central authority with its own Ministry of Education. The independence of Local Education Authorities (LEAs) was therefore under the control and direction of the Minister, as "the central government decided national policy while LEAs were to provide the schools" (Gosden, 1983:3). As a result of these changes, "there was more unity and standardisation in the national education service" (Dunford and Sharp, 1990:18). Changes in local administration were also made in the 1944 Act, and as a result, all secondary schools were required to have governing bodies a...
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...management of their educational establishments. Although there are many debates still taking place today on how the education system needs improving or re-addressing, the fact remains that the education acts focused on in this essay, greatly impacted and improved the British education system in terms of the quality of education and equality for pupils.
Works Cited:
1. Bush, T. Management in Education: Theory and Practice. London, 1989
2. Dunford, J. and P. Sharp. The education system in England and Wales. Essex, 1990.
3. Evans, K. The development and structure of the English educational system. London, 1975.
4. McClure, S. Eduaction Reformed. London, 1988.
5. McKenzie, J. Changing Education. Essex, 2001.
6. Richmond, W. K. Education system in Britain since 1944. London, 1978.
7. Gosden, P. The education system since 1944.Oxford, 1983.
Luigie Olmos Instructor: Danielle Panto English 105 November 28, 2016 Reaching For A Better Education Nelson Mandela once said, “Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world” (2016). Mandela’s says that education is very powerful, you can use education to change the world or your life. This means that education is important in life and we all need a good education to succeed in life. In our society education is failing because schools demand too much for a great career. For example, schools take too much time to graduate and after we finish school there is no guaranteed employment. Therefore, students are dropping out of school and are going to the workforce or military. We could make education better for students
...Brown who loves to talk about history because it interests him and because he likes discussing the political issues in the world. The purpose of the webpage is to inform about The Education Act 1870: revised version. The website was very helpful because it gave a handful of information about the act and it especially talks about the working-class in England. It also gives a great understanding of the requirements of the act and how the working-class benefits from it. The webpage was worth it because it gave many different facts about the Education Act and it also helped a lot while doing research. There could possibly be some limitations to this source because it was written about 140 years later. The good thing is that the source was never bias at any point, it just gave all the different facts and never focused specifically on one thing with one point of view.
... Education: An Introduction to Social and Political Aspects. 4th ed. New York & London: Longman, Inc., 1989.
The issue of equality in education is not a new problem. In 1787, our federal government required all territories petitioning for statehood to provide free education for all citizens. As part of this requirement, every state constitution included, “an education clause, which typically called for a “thorough and efficient” or “uniform” system of public schools” (School Funding 6). Despite this requirement, a “uniform” system of schools has yet to be achieved in this country for a variety of reasons, many of which I will discuss later on. During the early part of th...
A second piece of education policy that could be said to have a main aim of reducing social class inequality is The Education Act of 1944. Before this, only the middle class children could go to grammar schools and receive prestigious education due to the cost. However, The Education Act of 1944 introduced the 11+ exam and the ‘Tri-partite system’. All children sat the 11+ exam. Those who passed could go to grammar school, those who failed went to secondary moderns, and those with special abilities went to the secondary technicals. This meant that even if a working class child didn’t have any money, but successfully sat the 11+ exam, they could then go onto grammar school. Although at face value it looks as though this policy is reducing social class inequality, the 11+ exam and the Tri-partite system have been criticised. This is because the 11+ exam was seen as being biased in favour of middle class pupils. In addition, there was supposed to be a parity of esteem between the 3 schools. However, Grammar schools were deemed much better. Further to this, working class children who secured a place at a grammar school by passing the 11+ exam couldn’t even go anyway, as the price of various uniform and sports attire was too much. In response to this, in 1965, Comprehensive education was introduced. This sys...
Education is one of the most widely debated issues of our country in this current day and age. Many people feel as though some schooling is biased and unfair to certain students; meanwhile, others feel as though the schooling systems are not set up serious enough in order to properly educate students to prepare them for their futures. The three texts that will be discussed, are all well written controversial essays that use a great deal of rhetorical appeals which help readers relate to the topics being discussed. In the essay “School,” Mori manages to specify her views on how different modern education is in America as in Japan; meanwhile, in “A Talk to Teachers,” Baldwin presents his argument as to how all children,
The last act that will be reviewed is the Education Act of 1880, which made school compulsory for all children between the ages of five and ten. Even though the Act made attendance mandatory for children in this age group, only eighty-two percent of children were attending school by the early 1890s. Many children continued to work as their families desperately depended on their incomes to order to make ends meet.
Upon reading yearbooks dating throughout the past, it becomes apparent that external events shape education. It is obvious that our modern yearbooks are vastly different from the yearbooks of old, since their society reflected different issues than our own. We as a society, live in a time generally stable and peaceful, which is reflected within our own yearbook. During the 1940’s, society did not have the same luxuries as we do today, they lived in a time of change and insecurity. The 1940’s was a time of both war and death, which every student was effected by. During World War II, Canadians were sent to fight and die for their country, uncertain of their future. As well as men choosing to go to war, the second world war featured drafting,
...G.K. Bryce and W.M. Humes (eds.) Scottish Education; Post-Devolution, 2nd edition, (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press).
However, it is in the highest degree improbable that the reforms I propose will ever be carried into effect. Neither the parents, nor the training colleges, nor the examination boards, nor the boards of governors, nor the ministries of education, would countenance them for a moment. For they amount to this: that if we are to produce a society of educated people, fitted to preserve their intellectual freedom amid the complex pressures of our modern society, we must turn back the wheel of progress some four or five hundred years, to the point at which education began to lose sight of its true object, towards the end of the Middle Ages.
Thomas, S. (2004). Reconfiguring the Public Sphere: Implications for Analyses of Educational Policy. British Journal of Educational Studies, 52(3), 228-248.
“In a way, education by its nature favours the extrovert because you are taking kids and putting them into a big classroom, which is automatically going to be a high-stimulation environment …. Most people who have grown up introverted in this very extroverted culture of ours have had painful experiences of feeling like they are out of step with what's expected of them.” – Susan Cain ("Susan Cain Quotes”). Education is important because it provides people with basic information, like how to communicate effectively and compute numbers, which is supposedly useful in the real world ("Why Is Education Important in Life?"). School is meant to be a place where students learn these skills, but our current education system has made school more of a social gathering than anything. All students should have the same opportunity to succeed in their education, but because of this, it is sadly not the case in America. The education system is flawed because extroverted students are praised while introverted students are put down, and we can fix this by changing the
It is noticeable that the system of education is changing from time to time based on financial issues and how the world is growing. In the past, individuals taught the education system from the oldest member of the family to children, and their members were charging fees from the families that sent their children to them. Which meant that education was an important thing in all ages. Nowadays, the education is shaped to an official system run by professional people in governments and many countries invest high amounts towards education which makes evidence of how important it is in our current life. Every country has a different system of education based on their financial stability, government infrastructure and the standard of the government officials. It is noticeable that there is a big difference between the education in developing countries and the prevailing system in developed countries .In my essay I will discuss some reasons for these differences...
Doing the weekly readings and watching the videos, my mind exploded with possibilities for change - not unlike Raphael’s “brain popp[ing] open” (Senge, 2012, p. 64). Senge brings to our attention that schools were organised due to the necessity of the industrial age. However he also states that it’s time to move on from this out-dated mode, as i...
...all and L. Zafrin, (2008) The Purpose of Schooling: Beliefs and Practices of Educators in British Schools, TERC Documents, Paper 6, Available at: http://digitalcommons.uconn.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1005&context=terc_docs, (accessed: 20/04/14)