Changes in the Educational Sector in England - Assignment Example

? Public Education in England: Changes Through Time Table of Contents I. Introduction 3 II.Discussion 4 A. The View of Changes from the Earliest Levels of the Public Education System 4 B. Spending per Student, Changes in Enrollment and Faculty Numbers Through Time 5 C. Historical Perspectives 6 References 10 I. Introduction This paper examines the state of public education in England and the way the education sector in England has evolved over time. This takes England's education system as the public sector of focus for a historical research undertaking in general. One general way to view the changes in the public education sector of England is to view recent historical figures for spending in the sector, which, while having been on an uptick since the 1950's, is set to reverse course in the medium term, meaning that for the first time in decades spending in public education in England is expected to grow at a slower pace compared to historical averages (Chowdry and Sibieta, 2011): Graph Source: Chowdry and Sibieta, 2011, p. 3 In the plot above, one can see that relative to base figures for the 1955-1956 period, spending for public education in England has grown through time, while it seems to have plateaued somewhat in terms of the share of education in the country income. In both plots what is evident is that spending is expected to decrease moving forward, raising concerns about the impact of the declines on educational outcomes for students in England's educational system. This is one perspective among many, and have political and environmental contexts owing to the fact that the changes in spending have roots in the political and environmental processes in the medium term. The rest of the paper examines these and other changes in the education sector in England through time (Chowdry and Sibieta, 2011; Kwon, 2002; University of London & History of Parliament Trust, 2013; Gillard, 2011). II.Discussion A. The View of Changes from the Earliest Levels of the Public Education System One set of changes through time can be tied to technological developments relating to the understanding of what England needs moving forward and what educators have learned with regard to the need for structure in early education in order to meet England's standards for literacy as well as for numerical competence among the members of the population. The changes tied to this have to do with restructuring the nature of early childhood education, away from traditional structures that allowed for more freedom and less structure in the way young students were molded, to introduce more rigor and a greater focus on specific subject areas to prepare children to face the rigors of a more subject-oriented and less student-oriented educational system. These changes are technological too in the sense that inputs for the changes stem from what can be deemed as technological advances in the understanding of the educational needs of England in general and of a better understanding of how the educational system needs to evolve moving forward, via a greater emphasis on standards for measuring learning outcomes (Kwon, 2002). B. Spending per Student, Changes in Enrollment and Faculty Numbers Through Time The plot below tells a story of the evolution of public education in the recent past, with the teacher to student ratio basically staying the same, but the ratio of teaching assistants plus other supporting staff to students having increased over time, a proxy measure of the positive increase in the amount of resources spent for public education in England. The implication of the plot below is that environmental and political factors should have played into increasing the focus on public education in England through the observation period from 1997 all the way to 2010 (Chowdry and Sibieta, 2011): Graph Source: Chowdry and Sibieta, 2011, p. 8 In light of the above, moreover, the following plot detailing the sustained increase in per capita spending per student across different educational levels in England also make sense, and present a consistent story about the positive trends in educational spending in England through time. Looking at the plot below, while per capita spending for higher education has remained relatively the same, per capita schools spending and per capita spending for further education have grown tremendously from 1997 levels, growing by 100 percent and 50 percent respectively. Given the rise in overall numbers of students enrolled through time, the plots represent substantial increases in total spending for higher education in England through time (Chowdry and Sibieta, 2011): Graph Source: Graph Source: Chowdry and Sibieta, 2011, p. 7 C. Historical Perspectives The decades leading up to the 1900's was a time of great change in the educational sector of England, with the Industrial Revolution for one having a profound impact on the way education was perceived in England from one that is the province of an economic and cultural elite to one that became more universal and inclusive, to accommodate the needs of the economy to educate the masses for job roles in that new economy. These set of sweeping changes met with hostile resistance from the gatekeepers of the old order, but by 1825, with the passage of the Universities Act, an expanded number of school types has come to dominate the educational sector, expanding opportunities for learning and for social movement to a greater number of people. From technical schools to industry schools, and to schools that gave due consideration to the needs of those with disabilities, these changes augured well for the establishment of an educated and literate English society moving forward. It is noteworthy too that this time was also about the passage of the Oxford University Act in 1862, the 1871 Universities Tests Act, and the 1892 Technical and Industrial Institutions Act, all of which strengthened and evolved further the pillars of higher education in England leading to the 1900's (Gillard, 2011). The period after the two world wars can be characterized as the educational sector in England having been shaped and changed largely by the differences in educational ideologies and visions of those who came to power in successive decades. Touched off by the 1944 Education Act, the modern era of the public education sector in England has been characterized by shifts in educational policy from the time of Thatcher and then John Major, who in turn led the effort to “marketize” the educational system with a series of laws touching on specific areas from A Levels to English, HMI surveys, math and the issue of minority ethnic groups. This was followed by the Blair period, when the decades of rule by Thatcher and Major was followed by what educators hoped to be a positive wind of change with the ascension of a Labour party member to power and the ideological change that that represented. On the other hand, what happened in real life was different from what was envisioned to happened on paper, as the Blair government was eventually seen as having ideological views on education that were the same as the previous administrations, with a focus on market forces, and government-led interventions to tweak the educational system in bits, while retaining the general shape and direction that the system had taken over the past two decades under the administrations of Major and Thatcher before him. Some of the changes that were introduced into the educational sector in England during this time include the transitioning of comprehensive schools to specialist ones; privatization; the outsourcing or contractualization of chunks of the school systems; the expansion of the academies and the crafting of plans to increase their number to 200 by 2010; the push to rebuild the schools' physical infrastructures; and an increased emphasis and support for faith schools, culminating in a planned increase in the number of academies under the wing of the Church of England, which Blair favored (Gillard, 2011). More recent changes in the educational sector in England also have deep political roots, as evidenced by the government's push to further encourage the setting up of academies and the conversion of schools to the academy system, in congruence with the push made by the Blair government before. This was highlighted by the passage of the Academies Act in 2010, further giving teeth to a movement for academies spearheaded by the government. On the other hand, there has been a trend towards the decrease in government involvement in education in the medium term noted in this new government, as characterized by the slowed spending on education in general, reduced spending to rehabilitate and rebuild physical school infrastructure, and moves to control enrollment numbers in higher education. Summarizing, the take with regard to the recent changes in the educational sector in England is that the most recent political initiatives seem to emphasize fiscal discipline and cutting back on government spending for education while also making sure that ideologically-driven programs such as the encouragement given to academies are sustained and given due support. Taking a step back, these recent moves are a reversal of a momentum that was built over decades where government sustained an effort to increase spending for education and to expand educational opportunities for more people, while also endeavoring to raise education quality through a number of initiatives over all levels. The message from the new government seems to be that a drive for quality can be effective in a regime where there is more discipline and restraint in spending (Gillard, 2011). References Chowdry, H. and Sibieta, L. (2011). Institute for Fiscal Studies, Economic & Social Research Council Retrieved from http://www.ifs.org.uk/bns/bn121.pdf Gillard, D. (2011). Education in England: a brief history. EducationinEngland.org.uk. Retrieved from http://www.educationengland.org.uk/history/index.html Kwon, Y. (2002). Changing Curriculum for Early Childhood Education in England. Early Childhood Research & Practice 4 (2). Retrieved from http://ecrp.uiuc.edu/v4n2/kwon.html University of London & History of Parliament Trust (2013). Public Education: Introduction. British History Online. Retrieved from http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.aspx?compid=22983 Read More