Recent educational reforms have attempted to increase the equality of opportunity in the education system. How far have they been successful?

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Recent educational reforms have attempted to increase the equality of opportunity in the education system. How far have they been successful?

There have been a number of changes made to the education system to increase the equality of the learning of the students and their opportunities. There have been many acts passed, but there is still not full equality throughout the education system.

In 1988, the Education Act was passed and this resulted in many changes being introduced, which aimed to increase the equality between pupils. In September 1989, The National Curriculum and testing were introduced in all state schools. Students aged between 5 and 16, had to study, to Key Stage 3, the core subjects-science, maths and English, and had to study a number of foundation subjects such as history, sociology, art etc. At the ages of 7, 11, 14 and 16, at the end of the Key Stages, students progress was assessed by the teachers and National Tests in the core subjects. This has provided more equality as students are learning the same subjects. Also, parents are allowed to choose the school their child attends, instead of going to the local school, so that children have the opportunity to have the best education at the best schools.

Vocational education was introduced because of the Education Act, which meant that students, who left school at the age of 16, could attend training programmes for vocational skills and work experience to gain qualifications. This gave all students an equal opportunity to get a job even if they were not academic.

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Although these changes have been made, this hasn’t stopped the inequality in education. It has decreased the problem, but it still exists. The home and school can affect student’s achievement in many different ways.

The home environment is a factor that affects students’ achievement. If they live in poor living conditions with lack of privacy and no quiet places to work than the child can not do their homework to the best of their ability. This applies mainly to working class children, who may begin to fall behind in class, and they are more likely to have ...

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