The Main Provisions Of The 1944 Education Act And 1988...

The 20th century saw more changes to education than the thousand years preceding it. This was largely in response to a recently industrialised country; with newly acquired voting rights, it became apparent that education should not be only for elites. Education is a crucial element of social mobility and it is important we fully understand both the positive and negative aspects of previous legislation to help us plan for the future. The were two major 20th century pieces of legislation: 1944 Education Act and 1988 Education Reform Act. Both brought with them changes that are still being felt today. This essay will cover those Acts in detail, along with other sizable changes such as comprehensivisation, marketization and how other external†¦show more content†¦The ramifications of Butler’s failure to separate church and schooling and further pandering by all subsequent ministers can still be witnessed today. The church s influence on teaching on subjects evolution has forced the requirement of a law to ban creationism being taught (BHA, 2014). It has also come to light that many faith schools teach a very narrow worldview pertaining of just their own beliefs (NSS, 2015). Furthermore the school age was raised to 15 in 1947, with secondary education beginning at 11. Though the lack of funding and teaching costs meant this took a long time to fully implement as the act stated it should be raised to 16 as soon as feasibly possible but this did not happen until 1972. Other changes included free milk and meals, clothing grants as well as transport to and from schools. As families would normally expect children to be working by the age of 13-14 these measures ensured there was not too high a financial burden on parents. Giddard (2011) argues that although there were many problems with the 1944 Act its redeeming features were forward looking and progressive. Few debates in education have been given more time than grammar schools. Though not a part of the 1944 Act the tripartite system was based on a report by the Norward committee (1943); which made recommendations based on the pseudoscience notion of there being three types of mind: