The history of the education movement in England

The history of the education movement in England can be traced back to the Education Act of 1870. This Act ushered in the modern system of education in England. The Act gave rise to a national system of state education, but also assured the existence of a dual system - voluntary denominational schools and nondenominational state schools. The Act required the establishment of elementary schools nationwide. They were required to guarantee attendance for all children in their respective districts between the ages of 5 and 13. Elementary education became effectively free in England with the passing of the 1891 Education Act.

In England, education is compulsory from the age of five to age sixteen. Overall responsibility for all aspects of education in England lies with the Secretary of State for Education and Skills. Children must start compulsory primary education the term after they reach the age of five years. All parents of four-year-old children who would like their child to be in some form of foundation stage provision must be provided with access to a government-funded program.

What social, economic, cultural, and technological forces have affected educational changes in England?

Social pressure favoring more ethnic, racial and religious tolerance has resulted in establishing a framework for a broad program of citizenship and personal, social and health education. This framework sets out what children must know and be able to do. The stated goal is for

university. Thus Higher Education Funding Council statistics showed the privately schooled entry in 1998-9 to the `top twelve' universities (as ranked in newspaper league tables) to be just under 40 per cent; to the `top five', it was 48 per cent, and to Oxford, it was 53 per cent (Guardian, 2000, July 18; Times Higher Education Supplement, 2000, June 2). One in four Oxbridge entrants came from the top 100 independent schools, while only one in five came from the comprehensive schools attended by about 85 per cent of children of secondary school age (Sutton Trust, 2001, p.5). That entry to the most marketable locations is closely tied to A-level grades may give this imbalance a meritocratic appearance, but it is significantly greater than the entry targets which take A-level performance into account. As the Sutton Trust reported in June 2000, academically able children from poor families and frown comprehensive schools are substantially under-represented in the best universities, so that `the field from which the country recruits its future elite is extraordinarily narrow'. At the other end of the continuum of educational achievement, those leaving school with few or no formal qualifications are at very high risk of being unemp