How has education policy changed, and what have marketisation and selection done to equality?
Component 1 Section C (Education): educational policy, including the tripartite system, comprehensivisation, marketisation and parental choice (the 1988 Education Reform Act), selection and the impact of policy on equality of opportunity and on different social groups.
An Eduqas A-Level Sociology Education guide to policy. Covers the tripartite system, comprehensivisation, marketisation and parental choice (the 1988 Education Reform Act, league tables, formula funding), selection (cream-skimming, the A-to-C economy), and the impact of policy on equality of opportunity for different social groups.
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What this dot point is asking
This statement covers educational policy and its impact on equality: the historic tripartite system and comprehensivisation, the marketisation and parental choice introduced by the 1988 Education Reform Act, selection, and how policy has affected different social groups. The key skill is evaluating whether policies aimed at raising standards have widened or narrowed inequality.
The answer
From selection to comprehensives
- The tripartite system (after the 1944 Education Act) selected pupils at age 11 (the eleven-plus) into grammar, technical and secondary modern schools. It claimed to be meritocratic but entrenched class inequality: middle-class pupils dominated grammar schools, and the system labelled the majority as failures.
- Comprehensivisation aimed to abolish selection by teaching pupils of all abilities in one comprehensive school, promoting equality of opportunity and social mixing. Critics argue inequality persisted inside comprehensives through streaming and catchment areas.
Marketisation and the 1988 Act
The 1988 Education Reform Act introduced marketisation: running education like a market.
- Mechanisms: league tables (publishing exam results), Ofsted inspection, open enrolment (parental choice of school), formula funding (money following pupils so popular schools gain), and the National Curriculum for comparability.
- Aim: to raise standards through competition and to give parents power as consumers.
The New Right strongly supports marketisation, arguing competition and choice drive up quality and accountability.
The impact on equality
Critics, however, argue marketisation has widened class inequality:
- Parentocracy is a myth: Ball argues middle-class parents have the cultural and economic capital to be "skilled choosers" (understanding admissions, affording to move into catchment areas), while working-class parents are "disconnected choosers".
- Cream-skimming and silt-shifting: Bartlett shows popular schools can select the most able pupils (cream-skimming) and off-load less able or more expensive ones (silt-shifting), so good schools get "better" intakes.
- The A-to-C economy: league tables push schools to focus resources on borderline pupils likely to lift the school's grade percentage, neglecting those above or below.
Later policies (academies, free schools, the pupil premium) continued the market direction while trying to address disadvantage. Most sociologists conclude marketisation may raise standards overall but tends to favour already-advantaged families, so it can widen rather than narrow inequality.
Examples in context
A strong answer traces policy from selection to comprehensives to markets, names the mechanisms of the 1988 Act, and uses Ball and Bartlett to evaluate the equality impact.
Try this
Q1. Explain what is meant by 'cream-skimming' in a marketised education system. [6 marks]
- What the marker wants. A definition (AO1): cream-skimming is the practice by which popular, oversubscribed schools select the most able pupils (who are cheaper to teach and lift results), while less able pupils are left to less popular schools (Bartlett), with the point that this advantages already-successful schools.
Q2. Analyse two ways in which marketisation may increase social class inequality in education. [12 marks]
- Cue. Two developed points: middle-class parents have the cultural and economic capital to be skilled choosers (Ball), and popular schools cream-skim the most able while the A-to-C economy neglects others (Bartlett), each explained and linked to widening class inequality.
Exam-style practice questions
Practice questions written in the style of WJEC Eduqas exam questions on this dot point, with worked answer explainers. The year tag is the paper they imitate, not the source.
Eduqas A200 20186 marksExplain what is meant by the 'marketisation' of education. [6]Show worked answer →
A short Section C knowledge question (AO1 with application). Define and develop.
Definition. Marketisation is the policy of running education like a market, in which schools compete for pupils and parents act as consumers exercising choice, introduced by the 1988 Education Reform Act.
Development. It works through league tables, Ofsted inspection, open enrolment and formula funding (money following pupils), intended to raise standards through competition. Naming a mechanism such as league tables secures the marks.
Eduqas A200 202020 marksEvaluate the impact of marketisation policies on equality of opportunity in education. [20]Show worked answer →
A Section C essay (AO1, AO2 and AO3), shown at the 20-mark cap (worth more in the full paper), marked by levels of response.
For. The New Right argues marketisation raises standards and gives parents choice, driving up quality through competition and accountability.
Against. Critics argue it increases inequality: middle-class parents have more cultural and economic capital to exercise choice (Ball's "skilled choosers"), popular schools cream-skim (Bartlett), and league tables create an A-to-C economy that neglects some pupils.
Judgement. Marketisation may raise standards overall but tends to widen class inequality, because choice and competition favour already-advantaged families. A balanced judgement reaches the top band.
Related dot points
- Component 1 Section C (Education): perspectives on the role and purpose of education, including functionalist views (Durkheim, Parsons, Davis and Moore), Marxist views (Althusser, Bowles and Gintis, Willis) and the New Right, with their criticisms.
An Eduqas A-Level Sociology Education guide to the role of education. Covers functionalist views (Durkheim on solidarity, Parsons on meritocracy, Davis and Moore on role allocation), Marxist views (Althusser's ideological state apparatus, Bowles and Gintis's correspondence principle, Willis's lads), and the New Right, with criticisms.
- Component 1 Section C (Education): social class differences in educational achievement, including external factors (material deprivation, cultural deprivation, cultural capital) and internal factors (labelling, the self-fulfilling prophecy, streaming and pupil subcultures).
An Eduqas A-Level Sociology Education guide to social class and achievement. Covers external factors (material deprivation, cultural deprivation, Bourdieu's cultural capital, language codes) and internal factors (labelling, the self-fulfilling prophecy, streaming and the A-to-C economy), with the debate over whether the cause lies inside or outside school.
- Component 1 Section C (Education): gender differences in achievement (the changing position of girls and boys, and subject choice) and ethnic differences in achievement, including external and internal explanations and the experience of different ethnic groups in school.
An Eduqas A-Level Sociology Education guide to gender and ethnicity. Covers the reasons girls now outperform boys (feminism, changing ambitions, the decline of male jobs, laddish subcultures) and gendered subject choice, plus external and internal explanations of ethnic differences in achievement and the experience of ethnic groups in school.
- Component 1 Section C (Education): processes within school, including the hidden curriculum, teacher labelling and the self-fulfilling prophecy, streaming and setting, and pupil identities and subcultures (pro-school and anti-school responses).
An Eduqas A-Level Sociology Education guide to in-school processes. Covers the hidden curriculum, teacher labelling and the self-fulfilling prophecy, streaming and setting, differentiation and polarisation, and pro-school and anti-school pupil subcultures (Willis, Lacey, Ball), with the interactionist view of school the paper rewards.
- Component 3 Section A: patterns and trends in social inequality, including the distribution of wealth and income, the measurement and definition of poverty, social mobility, and explanations of why inequality and poverty persist.
An Eduqas A-Level Sociology Power and Stratification guide to patterns of inequality. Covers the distribution of wealth and income, absolute and relative poverty and how it is measured, social mobility, the cycle of deprivation versus structural and cultural explanations, and why inequality and poverty persist.
Sources & how we know this
- Eduqas A Level Sociology Specification (A200) — Eduqas (2015)