Examine the ways in which educational policies may reproduce and justify social class inequalities
All throughout time there has been a steer away from social class inequalities to try and produce an equal educational system; however it will always have some elements that will be regarded as unequal to some extent.
Before 1870 educational policies reproduced social class inequalities extremely as education was only available to a tiny minority of the population. This generally consisted of the wealthy as formal schooling included fees. Some lower class children received an education during this time which was taught by either the church or local charities however this was extremely limited and not everybody received this. This in itself is a social inequality as not all children received any educational opportunities so had to rely on the knowledge and socialisation of their families. As times progressed and as the need for better educated people came about the 1870 Forster Act was introduced in the country. This act ensured that all those who didn’t receive any educational opportunities previously would be able to receive education from an elementary school, this was introduced to stop their being any inequalities throughout the class. Sadly this act did not fully allow class inequality to disappear, this was down to the fact that the education that occurred in the elementary schools was still minimal as it was only available between the ages of 5 and 10 due to the fact that the government wanted only minimal reading, writing and arithmetic for success at future jobs. This was extremely unequal as the upper class children who still went to a fee paying school got to stay there till they were 18 and had a much thorough education to allow them greater opportunities in life. Although this system has proved much more equal than previous years it still had class