Universität Paderborn
Fakultät für Kulturwissenschaften
Anglistik/Amerikanistik
Sommersemester 2004
Seminar: Topics in Current British Affairs

The English Education System
A Historical Perspective

von

Sven Meyer

8. Semester International Business Studies
Paderborn, 31 August 2004

TABLE OF CONTENTS

1 INTRODUCTION  1

2 THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE EDUCATION SERVICE IN ENGLAND  2
2.1 THE NINETEENTH CENTURY  2
2.2 THE BEGINNING OF THE TWENTIETH CENTURY  4
2.3 THE EDUCATION ACT OF 1944 AND THE POST-WAR PERIOD  5
2.4 DEVELOPMENTS FROM THE 1970S TO THE 1990S  7
2.5 RECENT DEVELOPMENTS UNDER THE NEW LABOUR GOVERNMENT  9

3 PROBLEMS OF THE EDUCATION SYSTEM DERIVED FROM ITS HISTORICAL BACKGROUND  9
3.1 STATUS QUO  9
3.2 OUTLOOK  10

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS  A

BIBLIOGRAPHY  B

1 Introduction

Innovation and knowledge have become the motivating forces for growing economies, therefore a country needs to provide an effective education system, which offers equal opportunities for all people and ensures that employees have the right skills to make their businesses be successful. In England lies the responsibility for the education service with the Department for Education and Skills (DfES) headed by the Secretary of State, Rt Hon Charles Clarke MP. In the foreword of this year’s departmental report he makes the following statement:

The practical challenge for all of us is to ensure that children’s services [...] provide the very best for children throughout the system. It is a window of opportunity, which we must take full advantage of.1

This is one example showing that nowadays education plays an important role for and in the English society. During the last year record sums of money have been invested in education² and Mr. Clarke proudly presented the fulfilment of ambitious targets in the annual report of the DfES. The performance of schools and pupils have been increased throughout the country. Early education is accessible for nearly all 3- year-olds. By implementing new key strategies like “21st Century Skills – Releasing our Potential” and “Every Child Matters” standards shall continue to improve and new opportunities shall be created.³

But are these “one size fits all” measures really tackling the problems of today’s education system in England? Or is it rather an (anachronistic) approach to solving complex social problems (such as the education system) by standardised testing and targets? Can these “key strategies” and more money truly help to improve educational structures, which have evolved over the last two centuries? It is a fact that the education system in England is still far from perfect. Although more money is spent by the government, many schools seem to face financial difficulty.⁴ There exist differing opinions if the freedom of selecting schools supports or prevents the ideal of equal education for everybody. And it is certainly not clear, what type of school (comprehensive, secondary modern, private, church school or the diversity of all together) serves best to make everyone reach his or her full potential, as well as prepares young people in the best way for the future labour market.

In order to understand the (problems of the) present education system, it is absolutely necessary to take a look at its historical development. Although some features of today’s system are of recent nature, basic characteristics have its roots in the nineteenth and early twentieth century. This is why this term paper concentrates on the historical development of the education service in England. It shall give an overview of key events and summarise major education acts, in order to be able to evaluate some currently discussed problems of today’s education service.

2 The development of the education service in England

2.1 The nineteenth century

In the beginning of the nineteenth century influential people were in power, who believed that educating the poor would stir them up and make them discontent. Therefore education for poor people was seen as a threat to societies stability.⁵ At that time only rich people were able to educate their children in non-funded private schools. Nevertheless churches of different denominations started to offer more educational work to poorer people. They founded new church schools and promoted their ideas by forming national societies. These voluntary bodies raised their own money, built their own schools and employed teachers long before the Government spent any money on education.⁶ Therefore the Churches were first in charge of educating a large part of England’s population. Only by the 1830s the parliament started to spend money indirectly on education by subsidising the building of elementary schools. During the 1840s and 1850s grants were extended and more schools were able to get money from the central government.

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1 DfES, Departmental Report (2004): 5

2 Cf. DfES, Departmental Report (2004): 8

3 Cf. DfES, Departmental Report (2004): 5-6

4 Cf. Audit Commission, Education funding (2004): 18, 20

5 Cf. Keith Evans, The Development and Structure of the English School System (1985): 24

6 Cf. Paul Sharp/John Dunford, The Education System in England and Wales (1990): 2-3