This article, which accompanies Jane Martin's piece in this issue of "FORUM" (Volume 55 Number 2 2013, pp. 327-333), is a revised version of a lecture given at the History of education conference held in Winchester, December 1, 2012. [See the accompanying article "Caroline Decamp Benn and the Comprehensive Education Movement:…

Michael Gove has made examination reform a marked feature of his period as Education Secretary in the coalition government, although he has not always found it easy to bring about the changes he feels so strongly about, in the face of widespread opposition from teachers and educationists. This article seeks to analyse the Education…

In this slightly amended version of the talk with which the author opened the "Caught in the Act" Conference on 19 November 2011, he talks about fighting the most vicious right-wing government that England has known since the end of the Second World War--and one that is determined to destroy what's left of "a national system of education, locally…

It is argued that the creation of something called "New Labour" in the mid-1990s marked the death of the comprehensive school in England--or, rather, the end of any attempt to create a nationwide system of comprehensive schools. The election of Tony Blair as Labour Party Leader in July 1994 can be viewed as THE defining year in post-war Labour…

This article is based on a talk that was given by the author at the Institute of Historical Research on 3 February 2011, on the Victorian polymath Francis Galton and the malign legacy of his eugenic theories. It pays tribute to the pioneering work of the late Brian Simon in challenging the whole idea of "fixed innate intelligence" and in…

This article looks at the Coalition Government's recent White Paper and Education Bill whose chief effect will be to further destabilise the schools system in the United Kingdom. The new Bill stipulates that if a new school is needed in an area, proposals for an Academy or a Free School must be prioritised before any other bid can be considered.…

This article examines the findings of the recent London School of Economics RISE Report looking at policies relating to secondary school admissions in England.

Eugenic Theories are clearly alive and well in present-day society--or this is at least true of those theories relating to the passing on of abilities and talents from one generation to the next. This depressing thought was prompted by a reading of Chris Woodhead's latest book "A Desolation of Learning."

The Report of the Nuffield Review of 14-19 education, described by its Lead Director Professor Richard Pring of Oxford University in the last number of FORUM (Volume 51, Number 2 http://dx.doi.org/10.2304/forum.2009.51.2.197), highlights the increasing use of what can be described as "edu-dabble" by sectors of the education establishment.

This article looks at one of the dominant themes of English education over the past twenty years. It examines the various ways in which privatisation has affected schools and schooling since the early 1980s. It may no longer be possible to indulge in a blanket defence of the public sector; but we do at least have to recognise that privatisation in…

This article examines some of the recent documents and policy statements on education policy from the two main opposition parties. It argues that, while we have reached the stage where New Labour and Conservative pronouncements on education are more or less interchangeable, the Liberal Democrats have made a genuine attempt to forge a distinctive…

In this article, it is argued that the terms education and training are different, but not mutually exclusive. Where post-graduate certificate courses are concerned, training forms only part of the preparation of new teachers. (Contains 1 note.)

The concept of City Academies owes much to the plan for a network of City Technology Colleges announced by Conservative Education Secretary Kenneth Baker in 1986. This article argues that all this can be viewed as part of the inroad of business into state education, with private sponsorship seen by government as the magical solution to the…

The author argues that faith schools serve to exacerbate existing divisions in society and are therefore a threat to social cohesion. In many parts of Britain where segregation is already a reality, "faith" has now become another word for "race". Ethnic groups are not evenly spread between the religions, creating a situation where religion is used…

In this article, the author argues that the provisions in the White Paper and the Education and Inspections Bill mean the end of a coherent system of state education, locally administered. The education proposals are clearly part of the Government's ongoing transformation of the public sector. It is argued that the Government's education agenda is…