To what extent has marketisation of education encouraged equality in society?(20)
Marketisation refers to the process of introducing market forces of consumer choice and competition between suppliers into areas run by the state, such as education. The marketisation of education is achieved in two main ways; reducing direct state control over education and increasing both competition between schools and parental choice of schools. Marketisation means that schools are run more like businesses , that have to attract parents by competing with each other.
The new right are very much in favour of the marketisation of education, they argue that state control leads to low standards, inefficiency and lack of choice for parents. The new right and functionalists believe that education should be based on meritocracy, and that the state should not be in charge of education this is because it leads to wastage of resources and dependency of the individual on the state, therefore they believe they would create a better society if students and parents choose their schooling. The new right believe that comprehensive schools do not fit all and the solution to an unequal education is marketisation thus giving an opportunity for children and parents to have a say. The introduction of market forces allows school to advertise and promote standards and exam result to potential good students. In 1988 the conservative government introduced the education reform act, it had marketisation at its core. After 1997 new labour policies continued to maintain an education market. These policies have developed the education market, reducing state control and introducing parental choice as well as competition between schools. This introduction of the policies was based on the new right argument that competition forces schools to improve in order to attract parents. Examples of marketisation policies that were introduced by the conservatives and maintained by the new labour include;...