Social Class in Modern British Education
For this assignment I have been asked to write about a current issue in Further\Higher Education. I have chosen to discuss some of the issues of social class as they relate to education policy in modern Britain.
Following the right to vote, the right to education is a freedom which people throughout history and around the world have struggled to achieve. “There is a sense in which social class has been at the core of British sociology of education throughout the existence of the field, even when it has not been high on education policy agendas.” (Whitty, 2001, p.287) While issues and effects of social class exist in all countries, the English experience is particularly problematic. (Goldthorpe, 1996)
In the United Kingdom at the turn of the 19th century a university education was a privilege enjoyed by the sons of the wealthy and influential. Although members of the social elite “passed through the universities, they rarely completed their degrees. The subsidiary mission of the pre-industrial universities was to complete the socialisation of future elites, social and political”. (Scott, 1995, p.12)
The last two decades have witnessed a considerable amount of rhetoric with regard to improving this situation; with access and inclusion being the keystones of nearly every government policy issued. New Labour went so far as to announce in its election manifesto an explicit aim of increasing participation in higher education to 50 per cent of 18 to 30 year olds – though its best level of attainment was some 39.8 per cent as of 2007. (Kirkup, 2008). However, access and inclusion have not even begun to address education’s subsidiary purpose of socialising future elites.
New Labour positioned itself as the government which would address the class issues plaguing British education. The then UK Secretary of State for Education,