British education has traditionally been characterized by a high degree of autonomy. Local education authorities (county and city councils) were responsible for schools and colleges, not the national government. Teachers were free to teach what they wanted within the limits established by national (but not state) examinations, given at ages 16 and 18. Universities, although publicly funded, were not state institutions as in the rest of Europe. During the 1980s, however, this pattern was radically modified by new policies designed to create a “market” among schools. The most important elements of these changes have been the establishment of a compulsory national curriculum in all schools as legislated in the 1988 Education Reform Act and the subordination of the universities to state commands. As a result, the distinctiveness of British education in Europe has been reduced.
In the 20th century the minimum age for leaving school was raised to 14 after World War I and to 15 after World War II. A universal system of secondary education was created following the 1944 Education Act, but a distinction continued to be drawn between grammar schools for the academically able and “secondary modern” schools for the rest until the emergence of comprehensive schools in the 1960s that combined grammar and secondary modern schools. In 1973 the minimum age for leaving school was again raised, to 16, where it remains, although the majority stay in school until age 18. A growing proportion then goes on to higher education.
In 1870 local school boards were established to assume responsibility for existing voluntary schools and to found new ones. In 1902 these independent boards were abolished, and their functions were taken over by all-purpose local government agencies: county councils established in the 1880s and city or borough councils that had existed for many centuries. These local education authorities (LEAs) became responsible for the whole of education, with the exception of the universities and independent schools. A national “system” barely existed before the end of World War II. The minister of education (earlier the president of the board of education) was a minor member of the cabinet. Only in the 1960s, when the Department for Education and Science was created and the minister upgraded to a secretary of state, did education become a significant arena for national policy making. In 1995 the departments of education and employment (labor) were merged, further enhancing the status of education.
Governance
British education is described as “a national system locally administered.” Until the balance of power swung toward national control, education in England was seen as an equal partnership between the English Ministry of Education, now the Department for Education and Employment, and the 125 LEAs, ranging from cities to small rural counties. Scottish education was more centralized, with the Scottish Office Education Department the dominant partner. Northern Ireland’s Department of Education was more dominant still.
Five factors, including the reorganization of local government, have contributed to the erosion of these partnerships. These also involve the national government’s assumption of new powers to direct education, establishing a national curriculum. Her Majesty’s Inspectorate, a national advisory service, has been replaced by an executive agency, the Office for Standards. In addition, new types of public schools, independent of LEAs, have been established. These include city technology colleges, sponsored by business, and grant-maintained schools, former LEA schools now administered by a new national body, the Funding Agency for Schools.
Finally, the governing bodies of individual schools have been given greater powers under the Local Management of Schools initiative, including determining admissions policies. They have also delegated budgets, although the LEAs continue to employ the teachers and own the buildings. Also, parental power has been encouraged. LEAs can no longer limit intakes to successful schools so that struggling schools can survive.
Finance
British schools, colleges, and universities, like those in the rest of Europe, are publicly funded. All public education, including university education, is free. The overwhelming majority of public schools continue to be LEA-maintained or aided. There are about 1,000 grant-maintained schools and fewer than 20 city technology colleges.
Public expenditure on education in Britain in 1994-95 was $42 billion. Grant-maintained schools and city technology colleges are centrally funded through national agencies, as are further-education colleges (the broad equivalent of community colleges) and universities. Most schools are funded by LEAs, but in practice, they too are nationally funded. Although LEAs’ revenue is partly derived from local council taxes and partly from national taxation, their overall expenditure is fixed by the central government. Moreover, LEAs are obliged to delegate responsibility for up to 90% of their budgets to individual schools. Also, all capital expenditure, for example on school buildings, must be approved by the central government, which also fixes teachers’ salaries (uniform throughout Britain).
EDUCATIONAL INSTITUTIONS
In 1995 there were 9.5 million students in Britain’s 34,127 schools. The standard categorization is nursery, primary, and secondary education. There were almost 85,500 children aged 3-5 in 1,406 nursery schools; a further 338,000 were in nursery classes in primary schools. A much larger number of young children attended play groups and kindergarten. About 4.8 million pupils attended 23,829 primary schools, which traditionally have been divided into infants’ departments, for children up to age 7, and junior schools, for those from ages 8 to 11. There were 3.6 million students enrolled in Britain’s 4,648 secondary schools. About 110,000 youths with learning and other behavioral difficulties attended special schools, but the trend has been toward integration in mainstream schools.
English and Welsh education can also be categorized by the four stages (two primary and two secondary) of the national curriculum, with students tested at the end of each stage. (There is no national curriculum in Scotland or Northern Ireland.) There are sometimes local variations to the standard primary-secondary pattern, including middle schools, covering the 9-to-13 age range, sandwiched between primary and secondary phases. In other cases secondary schools finish at 16, and students transfer to either a special-purpose “sixth-form” college or a general further-education college.
Primary Schools
In the 1960s the traditional approach to educating younger children was replaced by a more relaxed and informal approach. This shift was highlighted by the Plowden report (1967), supported by most primary teachers and the National Union of Teachers, which recommended the hiring of more teachers, more progressive teaching methods, and the enrichment of the primary school curriculum.
Growing concern about standards of literacy and numeracy and the failure of primary pupils to develop disciplined study habits were important motives for the introduction of the national curriculum through which national testing at key stages 1 and 2 has occurred. The testing ended primary education’s previous status as a test- and examination-free zone.
Once highly selective and elite in its academic orientation, British higher education has become a mass system, enrolling about a third of the age group. In 1995, 1.4 million students were enrolled. The system is made up of 90 universities and 79 smaller colleges of higher education. In addition, higher-education programs are offered in many further-education colleges.
Other than Oxford and Cambridge and the four Scottish universities established before 1600, most universities are of more recent origin. London and Durham were founded in the first half of the 19th century and the civic universities (analogous to land-grant universities) in the Victorian era. University colleges were established in many towns in the early 20th century, becoming fully fledged universities later. In the 1960s, so-called plate-glass universities were built on green-fields campuses, such as Sussex and Warwick. The colleges of advanced technology that traced their origins back to the early days of the Industrial Revolution became universities at the same time. The Open University (est. 1969), which teaches via radio, television, and correspondence, is still one of Britain’s most distinctive higher education institutions and has been much imitated. Finally, the polytechnics, with similar origins, gained university status in 1992. Among the 79 colleges, Glasgow College of Art is as famous as most universities; a few are equivalent in size and range to universities.
All British institutions of higher education, whether universities or colleges, receive the bulk of their incomes from the state, channeled through three funding councils. Public expenditure on higher education amounts to $6.75 billion. The autonomy of British universities was safeguarded by the University Grants Committee, which acted as a buffer between them and the state, until it was abolished in 1989. Under the new funding councils’ regime, higher-education institutions have become more accountable.
Despite the fame of institutions such as Eton College, Harrow School, and Winchester College, fewer than 10% of British children attend the nation’s 2,476 private schools, for which fees are charged. However, the most famous private schools (also, misleadingly termed “public schools” because they were endowed in contrast to private schools that operated at the financial risk of the master) wield an influence far beyond their enrollments, educating a disproportionate share of the nation’s political and professional elites.
Two significant trends can be observed in the private schools sector. First, preparatory schools catering to 8- or 9- to 13-year-olds are finding it difficult to attract sufficient pupils. Second, boarding away from home has become less popular.
More than 90 percent of secondary students attend comprehensive schools catering to all abilities. Only a few grammar schools that select the most academically able survive, in contrast to many other European countries. Comprehensive national reorganization was initiated by a Labour government during the 1960s and continued by later Conservative governments.
Typically students are taught in mixed-abilities classes in the early years of secondary education, although they may be more carefully categorized by ability for languages or mathematics. Later, categorization becomes more general as students are prepared for external examinations. In England and Wales, the first, taken at age 16, is the General Certificate of Secondary Education. Students take GCSEs in from 5 to 12 subjects, and their performance is graded A-E (although A-C passes are normally required). The second, advanced-levels (A-levels), are taken at the age of 18, normally in 2 to 4 subjects and also graded A-E. A-levels serve as university entrance examinations. In Scotland, ordinary-levels (O-levels) replace GCSEs, and higher-grades replace A-levels. Highers are less advanced than A-levels but taken in more subjects. In Northern Ireland, O-levels and A-levels, the pattern in England before the introduction of GCSEs in 1986, remain.
In 1995 there were 2.3 million students enrolled in 577 further-education colleges. Until 1992 these colleges were administered by LEAs, but they are now free-standing institutions responsible to the Further Education Funding Councils. They enroll students of all ages–teenagers and adults, full and part time. They offer a variety of courses: academic pre-higher education programs, such as A-levels; vocational preemployment programs, including craft and technician qualifications; and adult-education courses.
Posted by kentguy 
Posted by kentguy 