ERIC Number: EJ951418
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2011
Pages: 10
Abstractor: As Provided
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-0963-8253
EISSN: N/A
Markets Are for Commodities, Not Children
Mortimore, Peter
FORUM: for promoting 3-19 comprehensive education, v53 n3 p339-348 2011
Recent governments have transformed the English education system from an arrangement of local, democratically managed, groups of schools into a market free-for-all in which individual schools compete for pupils, status and resources. Elements of a market exist in the relationship between parents and private schools but much market behaviour is inimical to a fair education system. Successive governments' clumsy attempts "to fix the market" in favour of the schools they have created has led to stressed parents, over-tested pupils and a deeply fractured system. Two simple changes could improve the system: ensuring schools receive balanced intakes of pupils (with all receiving fair shares of those who find learning easy and difficult); and spreading high quality teachers between schools. Ways to achieve these changes are proposed. (Contains 22 notes.)
Descriptors: Foreign Countries, Commercialization, Educational Policy, Policy Analysis, Competition, Educational Change, Problems, Student Placement, Admission (School), Teacher Distribution, School Effectiveness, Government Role, Politics of Education
Symposium Books. P.O. Box 204, Didcot, Oxford, OX11 9ZQ, UK. Tel: +44-1235-818-062; Fax: +44-1235-817-275; e-mail: subscriptions@symposium-journals.co.uk; Web site: http://www.wwwords.co.uk/forum
Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Descriptive
Education Level: Elementary Secondary Education
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Identifiers - Location: Canada; Finland; Massachusetts; United Kingdom (England)
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A