Education

The underlying theme of this chapter is that education policy has changed quite dramatically since the late 1970s in Britain and that these changes are leading to a transformation of the education system. This transformation is having a major impact on both the nature of the service and the way in which it is managed. It is generally agreed that the basic structure of the post-war state education system in Britain was laid down by the Education Act 1944. This Act essentially created a partnership between local education authorities (LEAs), central government and later the teaching profession (represented by the major teaching unions) in the provision of the service, a partnership which remained largely intact until the 1980s. This tripartite relationship was based to a large extent on a consensus of values about the role of education in modernising both the economy and the society and on the worth of education for its own sake. It was the essential ‘good thing’. This consensus did not lead to a static educational system, since there were very significant developments in policy between 1944 and 1980, some of which resulted from the development of existing policies and some of which represented partisan approaches. For example, the gradual growth of higher education was the result of general social and economic developments which made a university education both more accessible and more overtly rewarding to those demanding it.