Changes in Education after 1976.

In 1988 the government laid down a National Curriculum. This was the first time this had been done. This meant that schools had to teach certain subjects. These included English, Maths, Science, History, Geography, Technology, Music, Art and Physical Education. It also wanted children between the age of 11 and 16 to learn a foreign language. This is what the government saw as key subject areas. This was good as it meant that children had to learn about a wide range of subjects. They therefore had a greater range of knowledge.

Parents are given the choice of schools for their children. This encourages schools to do well, as they look better on league tables. This encourages parents to send their children to the better schools and therefore encourage schools to perform better. Schools are looking to completely fill up their places to the maximum and therefore need to perform well. This is another good thing as it continues to encourage schools to do well. However, it causes problems. If a school has to many people wanting to go it has to turn some down. Disappointing parents and children causing a lot of stress, some children must go to a different school that they may not necessarily like. This is a problem.

The 1988 act allowed the building of City Technology Colleges. These were college that specialized in technology. These were inner city establishments. They had private sponsors from industries. This meant that the state did not have to pay the full cost of running the buildings. They were independent and not run by the LEA's. These colleges would cater for children between 11 and 18 years old. These are good as it means the authorities have more money to spend on other schools. It meant however that the specialized schools got a lot more money as they were sponsored.

Grant Maintained Schools were created, these schools were not maintained by the government and instead school children had to pay fees to attend them. This often meant these schools were better as they had more money to spend on equipment. These were self-governing and not controlled by the authorities. This was bad as it meant that parents with better means could send their children to grant maintained schools. It also meant that some schools had better facilities.

Another new introduction was the system of formula funding. Basically this meant the school got funding for the number of people on roll at the school. This meant that schools with more pupils got more funding. This is a fair way of working the system. It means that each pupil receive the same amount of funds. This way the school should have the right amount of money for the number of pupils. This gave less successful schools the incentive to improve whilst rewarding successful schools.

One major change was in 1988, it went against all the general trends. It was the introduction of a new qualification for 16 year olds. It was the General Certificate of Secondary Education (we know them better as GCSE's). These replaced the old O levels (for the more academic) and CSE's for the less academic. They led to all pupils being entered for the same examination. They did not differentiate between the non-academic and the academic pupils. However, there were exceptions, were different students took a different level of paper, such as mathematics. GCSE's also included a lot of coursework. This encouraged student-centred teaching methods rather than 'chalk and talk'.

Further and higher education centres were encouraged to become independent and self governing, funded by the further education funding council rather than local LEA's. Like schools it was trying to encourage competitions between the institutions.

Higher Education expanded rapidly with the introduction of grants. However these grants kept becoming less and less and the government were trying to encourage students to get low cost loans which had to paid off once they had graduated. No such grants exist these days and many students have huge loans to pay by the time they leave university. There is talk of re-introducing grants however.

A huge range of alternative higher education became available such as apprenticeship. Through these you could gain recognised qualifications. There were also training schemes allowing people to work but have one day of to go to college.

Over many years education has been part of some major changes, both good and bad. These changes have made education what it is today. They now influence many children in the decisions they make after 16. They are a major part of every Childs life. Many more changes will happen, again both good and bad over the next through years that will have a major affect on the next generation and their education.