Education

This chapter reviews New Labour’s education policy. Blair’s commitment to education has resulted in three dimensions or strands that have contributed to the modernisation of education – an early years curriculum, a diversification of schools, and a reprofessionalisation of teaching. Introduced to widen state provision in respect of age and to meet the wider needs of its pupils, the first two dimensions of an early years curriculum and the introduction of more specialist schools were accompanied by policies that sought to give schools greater autonomy in managing their affairs as well as increasing the accountability of all schools. The re-professionalisation of the teaching profession has most clearly emerged in the conditions in which teachers are engaged and in national policies that have necessitated the widespread consultation with the training and engagement of teachers.

Education Systems and Policy · Psychology