Introduction
Education policies have developed from the sixth century and it is still evolving up to the current day. The paper will look at a brief history of the evolution of education policies to the time period of the 1940’s decade and then focus on the major development of education policies from 1944 to the end of the 20th Century.
Education policies have seen a major change from the Balfour act, the tripartite system, the 10/65 and had major professionals in the political and education systems try to change the way that education policies are formulated like Ellen Williamson, Winston Churchill and Callaghan among others.
Most of the education policies that were established in 1944 have remained the same especially in terms of administering bodies and duties of officials like the ministry of education and the local education authorities. The issue of funding for education has remained a contentious issue and it keeps on changing with the changes in the views and voting powers of the politicians in office.
Origin of Education policies
Education was introduced in Britain by Romans in the sixth Century. The Romans introduced the learning of Latin and Christianity in Britain with the arrival of St. Augustine.
The schools were originally known as grammar schools and song schools whereby, individuals were prepared for performance and entry to other professions like civil service, teaching and many other careers. The grammar schools gave provision of general education services needed by individuals who wanted to enter into careers like law, medicine, astronomy and theology (ATL 2011, p.3).
In the late 19th Century, the British government had established school boards that had been issued with the mandate of ensuring that elementary education was provided to locals in various areas where the schools were located.
Ainley and Allen (2010 p. 138) wrote that, “Using education to promote economic reconstruction and democracy would empower people to take an active part in a broader democratic discussion about the best policies for sustainability, economy and employment. Such an approach would represent an inversion of the master servant relationship of education to the economy.” The two authors try to imply that evolution of education policies are meant to change the society positively.
In current day, independent schools have been criticized for only considering elite cases which was not the original intention of education policies. Most grammar schools are not spared of criticism either due to their nature of being too selective when it comes to admitting students.
They also ask for a given amount of school fees for boarding facilities which prove restricting to parents. Most of the comprehensive schools in the country are also located in neighbourhoods where only rich individuals can be able to live, which further prove to be restrictive to many individuals. Public schools have not been spared either as most of their entry requirements are quite restrictive.
The entry requirements to most public schools are directed towards pupils who have attended private preparatory schools or have been privately tutored both of which are expensive options.
To try and bridge the gap created by the schools system being selective of students that can afford the expensive fees, the Thatcher government came up with Assisted Places Scheme in 1980 to assist able students whose parents or guardians could not be able to pay for the expensive fees required of public and independent schools. This policy was helpful to the society as it enabled children from lower income families to access education.
The change in the policies included the change in ages whereby, some schools established evening schools for adults and the established separate classes for students that were seen to show promise in class through their dedication and commitment to their studies. This led to outrage from other schools that were following the laid down school policies and also from the churches that felt that their followers were being taken away from them especially through the evening classes.
Other schools felt that their students would be tempted to leave their current schools and go to the schools that were not following established rules which the schools predicted would lead to depletion of their funds. In the early 20th Century, the Balfour Education Act was established with the development of elementary schools that had been established by the government which also funded the schools.
The Balfour Act was established through the support of Arthur Balfour who had been elected to the Conservative government and he presented his education bill to the House of Commons. Balfour thought that England was not doing enough to stay ahead in the education front in terms of enrolment, curriculum and public support.
The Balfour Act made for a provision which gave room for two education systems with educational and social functions for individuals (Osler & Starkey 2005, p.33). This is an indication of the positive intentions of policy change to the members of the community.
Education policies post 1944
Britain had been at war for about eight months with the Germans in the 1940’s. The then President of the Board of Education, Herwald Ramsbotham was able to lead the senior officers of the education board to form what would later be known as the 1944 Education Act.
The act, which had the support of the Prime minister, had the original intention of ensuring that students all over England got similar privileges and opportunities in education. The proposals that were made by the education board were documented in the ‘Education after the war- Green book’ (Ward & Eden 2009 p.666).
The book made the proposal that the differentiation that existed between elementary and secondary education should be removed and that education should be comprised of primary, secondary and higher education.
The proposals also set out that the role of ensuring that education is provided for the public who need it and that it should be made available by the local education authorities. The post war education system bill was passed by parliament under the persuasion of Butler and therefore, the 1944 education act is commonly known as the Butler Act (Ainley & Allen 2010, p.20).
The act served to set the guidelines for the ministry of education on which the Minister for education and the Central Advisory Councils for Education would get the guidelines for running education systems in England.
The statutory system of education was also provided for in the 1944 education act where guidelines were laid down with consideration of factors such as local education authorities, school management, transition arrangements, special education treatment, compulsory school age, provision for further education, secular instruction, appointment and dismissal of teachers, special education treatment, compulsory school age to be adhered to, higher education provision, prohibition of child labour and provision of services like feeding and medical services in specific schools (Crick 1998, p.333).
The education act of 1944 played a pivotal role in transforming the lives of British citizens. It ensured provision of education to all and advancement in science in science and technology.
The central administration act made reasonable appropriate demands on the minister of education who would have the duty of making an annual report to parliament on the progress of education in the various counties and county boroughs in England and Wales. The duties of the minister for education were set to be properly executed with the provision of offering of advisory services from Councils of education in England and in Wales.
Part II of the statutory system of education was organized into primary, secondary and further education levels. The intention of the education for all the levels was aimed at mental, physical, moral and spiritual growth and development of students. The local authorities of the areas around the schools had the duty of ensuring that the schools run smoothly as was expected.
The local authorities of the areas around the schools were also mandated with the duty of ensuring that children under the age of five attended nursery school so as to get a good base for their education. Children who had disabilities were also catered for in the education policies where appropriate facilities were made available to children who had disabilities (Tomlison 2010 p.6).
The local authorities also made it necessary to have religious studies available to schools so as to positively nourish the spirituality and morality of students that attended schools. Religious education was also expected to provide a good base for students who wanted to pursue careers that were religion specific for example clergy men.
In terms of religion, the local authority was issued with the necessary power to agree with local, regional and international religious leaders on the necessary religious instruction material to be used for students The local authority was also issued with a mandate for determining the best instructional material for the students and the best teaching methods to be used by teachers for effective learning. Religious education helped in shaping moral development of the British citizens.
Special schools were given a provision in the education act proposal whereby, the local authority was mandated with the duty of seeking medical attention on behalf of children that were suspected of having disabilities so that classification into different classes could be made and assistance to the children given accordingly.
If medical personnel recommended that a child needed special attention in school or more medical attention, it would be appropriate for the local authority to involve the parent in alternative forms of education for that particular child. A section in the education act also provided for a mandatory school going age for children between the ages of five and fifteen. Parents of children of this age were obligated to ensure that their children get the necessary education (Ward & Eden 2005 p.111).
Evaluation of the 1944 education act
The 1944 act might be criticized that it was made hurriedly with the intention of fast establishment of education policies to cater for the post war needs of Britain. It is however worthy to note that the education policies that were made were made with the intention of providing a good basis for the establishment and development of good education structure.
A good example of the positive effects of the establishment of proper education policies is the inclusion of both young and older children into the creation and cultivation of an education culture of trying to involve the children to actively and continuously make a positive change in their own lives and in the community.
Overall, the 1944 education act had a positive effect as it had the intention of providing medical and dental health, free milk and meals and free support services like transport and clothing grants to school going children. The 1944 education Act also had the provision which led to the development of the Central Advisory Councils of Education in both Wales and England. It is these two Central Advisory Councils that led to meaningful reports in the education sector (Osler & Starkey 2005 p.77).
The Central Advisory Councils for education came up with the 1959 Crowther Report which was about the education of 15 to 18 year olds, the 1963 Newsom Report which focused on educating children that were less capable in comparison to other children in schools and the 1967 Plowden Report that focused on children and their primary schools. The 1944 education act was amended in some sections by legislation in the year 1996 through the then Education Act.
Ellen Wilkinson had been the minister for education who had been elected to lead the ministry after the Second World War. Ellen Wilkinson was tasked with the mandate of seeing through the education act that had been established. Ellen liked the Act because she personally felt that the education Act gave the progress and fostered the growth and development of learners to become more creative and confident; both in the classroom and outside of the classroom (Tomlison 2000 p. 64).
Wilkinson had ambitions that included increasing the school going age of children to sixteen years old and to offer the meals to the school going children at no fee at all. The introduction of free milk was a success in schools but the introduction of free meals proved to be difficult which led to the depression and eventual death of the then education minister; Ellen Wilkinson. George Tomlison took over as the education minister in the beginning of the year 1947.
Tomlison hoped to publicize the comprehensive education system. In the comprehensive education system, all school going children were supposed to attend one common school instead of what was being witnessed at the time. The school going children were divided by the idea of making a choice between secondary, modern, grammar and specialist schools (Crick 1998, p.201).
Even politicians that supported the Labour party hoped that a new government would bring with it the introduction of an education system that would not favour any group of students but would instead offer equal opportunities for all school going children. This idea was however not achieved because of private schools and what was referred to as the direct grant schools did not change into the recommended universal schooling system where all the school going children were given equal opportunities.
Critics of the then government felt that not enough attempts were made to try and start up the universal education system. The Atlee government instead introduced the tripartite education system which had the grammar, technical and secondary modern schools ideas being implemented into workable systems.
The Tripartite System
The tripartite system had the goal of introducing three types of education systems that would be controlled and funded by the state. The modern schools that would be established had the aim of enrolling children who would be working class individuals and their future employment would not require them to have any specific knowledge or technical skill. Most of the politicians in the Labour party were against the proposal.
Once the education policy was discussed in parliament, the proposal was rejected on the basis that it offered no new insight into improvement of the existing education system (Tomlison 2000 p.88). In my opinion, this policy would have brought more harm than good to the intentions of education to the British citizens.
Critics argued that the tripartite system was similar to the system of education that needed to be abolished because it had only promoted conflict by stratifying individuals into different groups based on their wealth and social status.
The existing government however, worsened matters by making it difficult for some children to enter into the grammar schools, refusing some of the existing secondary schools to offer exams and declining to approve proposals that were presented by local authorities on issues concerning improvement of running of local schools.
Evaluation of tripartite system
The tripartite system increased competition of entry into grammar schools and promoted the concept among individuals that the working class children were of lower intelligence in comparison to other children. The development of primary education was therefore seen as taking a back seat as emphasis was now made on the teaching of students to pass exams so that they could gain entry into the present day competitive grammar schools, and not to gain knowledge that would be used in future.
In the years between 1951 and 1964, Britain saw the return of the Conservatism party which led to major reforms in the education sector. The conservatisms’ managed to come up with the 10/65 circular which had the goal of ending separation in the system of getting into schools by students.
The force with which members of the government who wanted to see change in the system of schools seemed to diminish with the existence of limitations in pursuance of elimination of division of the schools into different groups based on unfair systems. With the introduction of the Certificate of Secondary Education, there was even more pressures on schools to divide up the students to those that were performing and the non performers (Crick 1998 p.76).
The 1960s decade however saw the development of elementary school education to an education system that put a lot of emphasis on the development of individual personality of children rather than on formal education. This kind of education appreciated and valued that individuals are different and that education only might not be enough for an individual to succeed.
The Callaghan Ruskin College speech
Callaghan made his speech in 1976 where he made it known that the curriculum did not put enough emphasis on skills that were needed by students such as basic reading, writing and arithmetic.
He felt that teachers, employers, parents and trade unions should be allowed to discuss the effects of education on the school going children and whether they benefited from the education that they get from the schools or whether it is just a formality. Callaghan felt that there was a deficit in the education that was being provided in schools especially when matched up to the economic needs needed by the country in order to remain competitive in the global market (Osler & Starskey 2005, p.55).
Evaluation of Callaghan’s speech
Callaghan’s speech was not fully welcomed as it was seen by many people as being an attack on the teachers who felt that they did the necessary things to ensure that students learn what is necessary. The speech however, inspired some changes in the education system with the establishment of Assessment of Performance Unit and the mass Testing of Local education Authorities. The education sector saw a minor restructuring with its integration into the social and economic sectors (Tomlison 2000 p.391).
The aim of the education policies by Margaret Thatcher was to change the system of public schools to become more profitable and to change their governance from local authorities to the central government. One of the primary motives for Thatcher was to try and equalize the opportunities made available to pupils when entering into schools regardless of their social or economic backgrounds.
The 1974 Act seemed to flop as most of the politicians were seen to prefer policies that would put up more secondary schools instead of increasing pressure on the already existing secondary schools to select from a wider range of pool of pupils especially the secondary schools.
Unfortunately, some of the education policies seem to have changed to the disadvantage for the majority of English citizens because most parents would like to take their children to good schools but they have restrictions based on academic capability of the students and the financial capability of their parents.
Most of the education policies that were made in 1944 have remained intact and have benefitted English citizens in terms of provision of free primary and secondary education. Higher education is made available to English citizens at reduced fees in comparison to international students.
Conclusion
Education is an important part of the society as it produces civilized individuals. Education cannot however compensate for society as they both need each other to survive. The society needs education in order to produce skilled and educated people who know how to behave in the society.
A society has rules and regulations and when most people are educated, they do not have to keep on being followed so that they can follow the rules. Education needs the society so that it can develop into a system that benefits the society and develops with time so as to help future generations (Osler & Starkey 2005 p. 58).
With the recent economic crisis, most of the educated young people do not have jobs and most of them feel that the education system has let them down for giving them training that does not offer them jobs. Education can therefore not compensate for society.
Reference List
Ainley, P. & Allen, M., 2010. Lost Generation? New strategies for youth and education. London: Continuum.
ATL., 2011. The future of state education: how everything you value is disappearing, London: Association of Teachers and Lecturers.
Crick, B., 1998. Education for Citizenship and the teaching of Democracy Schools: Final Report of The advisory group on Citizenship. New Yolk, NY: Bradshaw Press.
Osler, A. & Starkey, H., 2005. Changing Citizenship, Democracy and Inclusion in Education, Buckingham: Open University Press.
Tomlinson, S., 2000. Education in a post welfare society, Second Edition. Buckingham: Open University Press.
Ward, S., & Eden, C., 2009. Key Issues in Education Policy. London: Sage.