During the years 1979-1997 the Conservatives were in power - they are a government party who when in control noticed the failing attempts of the education system to create a skilled and successful workforce, this therefore consequently had a huge impact on the economy. Because the main aim of the conservatives was to create a suitable workforce that would not disadvantage the economy, they began to introduce many policies which they hoped would reduce the number of pupils failing and thus becoming welfare dependent. This essay will therefore analyse the effects of the policies that were introduced in order to create an education market which will then be followed on by a thorough and detailed evaluation that will assess whether introducing these policies were a success or not. Many of these policies were introduced under the 'The 1988 Education Reform Act', this was a huge turning point for the education system as it created the whole image of the 'education market', which the conservatives were successful in doing, therefore this essay will now identify and evaluate some of these policies that the conservatives introduced under the 1988 Education Reform Act and assess the effects they had in creating an education market. The New Right thinkers supported the aim of the conservatives to create a system of marketisation and so began to advertise schools in hopes that it would make students value the education they were receiving, hence by introducing marketisation; competition to do better and achieve more was created.
The idea of the National Curriculum was put forth by the conservatives as one of the policies that came under the 1988 Education Reform Act. The conservatives introduced the National Curriculum so that pupils all over the UK regardless of where they live and/ or attend school would be taught more or less the same content. The National Curriculum consists