Abstract
Britain’s education system should have been an unmitigated success story in the 1960s, for it had fully shared in the gains of prosperity. Education spending had been growing steadily as a share of GDP since the 1840s, though it had been slowed by the Depression and the Second World War: this long-term shift of resources now continued, and indeed accelerated (see Figure 9.1). During the 1950s the Conservatives built thousands of new schools while still reducing pupil-teacher ratios; overall, they increased education outlays as a share of GDP from 2.6 per cent to 4.5 per cent.1 This represented the steepest rise in education spending since a comprehensive system of state elementary education was established in the 1870s.2 The 1960s were also marked by large spending increases, if not on quite so grand a scale: by the academic year 1970–71 real terms spending had nearly doubled again since 1960.3 Teacher numbers mounted; pupil-to-teacher ratios fell progressively (see Figures 9.2 and 9.3). And yet the paradox of this progress was that it elicited, not a general sense of satisfaction at the objectives achieved, but a constant sense of educational crisis — as we shall see.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Preview
Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.
Notes
M. Seaborne and Roy Lowe, The English School, vol. II: 1870–1970, London, Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1977, table II, p. 155.
V. Carpentier, ‘Public Expenditure on Education and Economic Growth in the UK, 1833–2000’, History of Education 32, 2003, fig. 1, p. 5.
G. Smith, ‘Schools’, in A.H. Halsey and J. Webb (eds), Twentieth Century British Social Trends, Basingstoke, Macmillan, 2000, table 5.18, p. 202.
Gosden, Education in the Second World War, chapter 12, pp. 268–308, and chapter 13, 309–31; K. Jefferys, ‘R.A. Butler, The Board of Education and the 1944 Education Act’, History 69, 1984, pp. 415–31.
F.W.S. Craig, British General Election Manifestos 1959–1987 (3rd edn), Aldershot, Dartmouth, 1990, pp. 263–4, 304–5;
Cmnd 2764, The National Plan, London, HMSO, 1965, p. 193.
Benn diary, 5 January, 15 January 1968: T. Benn, Out of the Wilderness: Diaries 1963–1967, London, Hutchinson, 1987, pp. 6–7;
S. Crosland, Tony Crosland, London, Cape, 1982, pp. 195–6.
W. Pile, The Department of Education and Science, London, Allen and Unwin, 1979, p. 21.
J.P. Parry, The Provision of Education in England and Wales, London, Allen and Unwin, 1971, pp. 83, 88–97.
Central Advisory Committee on Education (Crowther Report), Fifteen to Eighteen, London, HMSO, 1959, pp. 30–2.
H.C. Dent, The Training of Teachers in England and Wales, London, Longmans, 1977, pp. 130, 134–5.
National Advisory Council for the Training and Supply of Teachers, Demand for and Supply of Teachers 1963–1986, London, NACTST, 1965, table 1, p. 19.
M. Shattock, ‘Demography and Social Class: The Fluctuating Demand for Higher Education in Britain’, European Journal of Education 16, 1981, p. 381, and fig. 1, p. 382.
National Union of Teachers, The State of our Schools, London, NUT, 1963, pp. 9, 16.
R. Pedley, The Comprehensive School (2nd edn), Harmondsworth, Penguin, 1972, p. 31.
B. Jackson and D. Marsden, Education and the Working Class, London, Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1962, appendix, table XV, p. 253.
J.W.B. Douglas, The Home and the School: A Study of Ability and Attainment in the Primary School, London, MacGibbon and Kee, 1964, appendix III, tables VII (b)–(c), pp. 156–7.
N. Timmins, The Five Giants: A Biography of the Welfare State, London, Fontana, 1996 pbk edn, p. 239;
H. Judge, A Generation of Schooling: English Secondary Schools since 1945, Oxford University Press, 1984, p. 41.
J.W.B. Douglas, J.M. Ross and H.R. Simpson, All Our Future: A Longitudinal Study of Secondary Education, London, P. Davies, 1968, pp. 24–6, and table 10, p. 207, table 14, p. 210.
A. Yates and D. Pidgeon, Admission to Grammar Schools, London, National Foundation for Educational Research, 1957, pp. 63–4, table V/I, p. 63, p. 66.
P.E. Vernon, Secondary School Selection, London, Methuen, 1957, pp. 77, 169.
Cmnd 604, Secondary Education, p. 5; see B. Simon, ‘The Tory Government and Education 1951–60: Background to Breakout’, History of Education 14, 1985, p. 293.
D. Dean, ‘Conservative Governments 1951–64, and their Changing Perspectives on the 1944 Education Act’, History of Education 24, 1995, p. 251.
D. Crook, ‘Edward Boyle: Conservative Champion of Comprehensives?’, History of Education 22, 1993, pp. 52–3.
D. Rubinstein and B. Simon, The Evolution of the Comprehensive School1926–66, London, Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1969, pp. 90–1.
S. Maclure, A History of Education in London1870–1990 (2nd edn), London, Allen Lane, 1990, pp. 172–5.
P.H.J.H. Gosden, The Education System since 1944, Oxford, Martin Robertson, 1983, table 1.5, p. 42; Scottish Education Statistics, 1971, table 4, p. 30.
R. Lowe, ‘The Social Policy of the Heath Government’, in S. Ball and A. Seldon (eds), The Heath Government1970–74, London, Longman, 1996, pp. 212–13.
T. Tilton, The Political Theory of Swedish Social Democracy, Oxford, Clarendon Press, 1991, p. 145.
G. Myrdal, An American Dilemma: The Negro Problem and Modern Democracy, New York, Harper and Brothers, 1944, p. 1023.
E.S. Lyon, Modernity, Social Science and Educational Engineering: Alva and Gunnar Myrdal and the ‘Swedish Model’ of School Reform, London, South Bank University, 1999, pp. 39–43.
On this idea see R. Hansen and D. King, ‘Eugenic Ideas, Political Interests and Policy Variance: Immigration and Sterilization Policy in Britain and the US’, World Politics 53, 2001, esp. p. 262.
T. Husén, An Incurable Academic: Memoirs of a Professor, Oxford, Pergamon Press, 1983, pp. 83–4.
N-E. Svensson, Ability Grouping and Scholastic Achievement, Stockholm, Almqvist and Wicksell, 1967, pp. 169, 176.
A. Svensson, Relative Achievement: School Performance in Relation to Intelligence, Sex and Home Environment, Stockholm, Almqvist and Wicksell, 1971, p. 138.
T. Husén and G. Boalt, Educational Research and Educational Change: The Case of Sweden, New York, Almqvist and Wiksell, 1968, pp. 45–6.
P. Söderberg and S. Marklund, The Swedish Comprehensive School, London, Longmans, 1967, p. 20.
M. Kogan (ed.), The Politics of Education: Edward Boyle and Anthony Crosland in Conversation, Harmondsworth, Penguin, 1971, p. 77.
R. Pedley, The Comprehensive School (1st edn), Harmondsworth, Penguin, 1966.
W. Dixon, Society, Schools and Progress in Scandinavia, Oxford, Pergamon Press, 1965, pp. 121–3.
OECD, Educational Policy and Planning in Sweden, Paris, OECD, 1967, pp. 347–8, 357, 367.
L. Spolton, The Upper Secondary School: A Comparative Survey, Oxford, Pergamon Press, 1967, p. 172.
C.D. Godwin, ‘The Origin of the Binary System’, History of Education 27, 1998, p. 173.
C. Burke and I. Grosvenor, School, London, Reaktion, 2008, pp. 106–9.
M. Seaborne, Primary School Design, London, Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1971, p. 53.
A. Saint, Towards a Social Architecture: The Role of School Building in Post-War England, New Haven, Yale University Press, 1987, pp. 143–53.
S. Maclure, Educational Developments and School Building, Harlow, Longman, 1984, pp. 100–2.
B. Russell, Building Systems, Industrialisation and Architecture, London, Wiley, 1981, pp. 398–402.
C. Ward, British School Buildings: Designs and Appraisals 1964–74, London, The Architectural Press, 1976, p. x.
The Builder, Consortia of Local Authorities: Advantages and Disadvantages, London, O.W. Roskill, 1964, pp. 12, 27–30.
Smith, ‘Schools’, table 5.2, pp. 184–5; Seaborne and Lowe, English School, vol. II, table II, p. 155; L. Cantor and I.F. Roberts, Further Education in England and Wales (2nd edn), London, Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1972, table 1, p. 1.
S.J. Prais, Productivity, Education and Training: An International Perspective, Cambridge University Press, 1993, pp. 52–3, 56–7, 59–60, 63–4.
Cmnd 3623 (Donovan Report), Report of the Royal Commission on Trade Unions and Employers’ Associations, London, HMSO, 1968, pp. 87–8, 92–3;
see D.H. Aldcroft, Education, Training and Economic Performance 1944 to 1990, Manchester University Press, 1992, esp. pp. 59–60,
and M. Sanderson, The Missing Stratum: Technical School Education in England 1900–1990s, London, Athlone Press, 1994, tables 8.6–8.8, pp. 60–1.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Copyright information
© 2012 Glen O’Hara
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
O’Hara, G. (2012). Planning the Education System in the Post-War Era. In: Governing Post-War Britain. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230361270_9
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230361270_9
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, London
Print ISBN: 978-1-349-31155-2
Online ISBN: 978-0-230-36127-0
eBook Packages: Palgrave History CollectionHistory (R0)