Education Policy: Market Forces or Market Failure?

Abstract

The educational system in England and Wales has been transformed since 1980. The changes include: the restructuring — twice — of the public examination system; the introduction of the national curriculum, with phased testing; the privatisation of the schools inspectorate; the extensive revision of teacher education with the performance of existing teachers now being regularly appraised; the publication of school examination and test results in the form of ‘league tables’; and the reduction in the role of local education authorities through the implementation of local management of schools (LMS) and the enhanced role of school governors, the opportunity for schools to ‘opt out’ from local control, and the creation of new non-LEA controlled City Technology Colleges (CTCs). Impressive as these measures are in terms of the breadth and depth of changes propagated, they tell only part of the story.