Butler introduced the first of many free Schools in the U.K, named the tripartite system; education had become free and compulsory for all children between the ages of five and fifteen. The tripartite system demanded that every child entering secondary school would have to sit an 11+ in order for them to be matched to an appropriate school based on their result. Butler’s “great” reform act had then hastily diminished and became the bipartite system meaning only grammar and secondary modern schools were used; one school for children who had passed their 11+ exams and another for children who had not passed and were considered more “vocational” (Browne, 2011:175).
In 1975 the labour government had tried to abolish …show more content…
“Between the early 80s and the late 90s, the proportion of poorer children who graduate from university had risen by only 3%, compared to 26% from wealthier families,” (Sheperd, 2009). Cuts had been made, unemployment was spreading quickly, the rich were becoming richer and the poor were becoming poorer. We are now seeing the effects of the conservative party in today’s economy and especially within the education system. They have tended to stick to a functionalist regime in society and a meritocratic order in education. This is something that Marxists’ oppose …show more content…
Life as we know it, from the beginning of time communities have had leaders of groups, villages, towns, even countries, from hunters to witch doctors, people have always played their different part in their society. So the Marxist theory would not completely work as a whole, unless the worlds so called “civilisation” were to change dramatically and we would also have to change our state of mentality and way of living our everyday lives. Society in the U.K has been living by the meritocratic system since the tri- partite system failed and was abolished by parliament and Margaret Thatcher came into power. This in itself has affected social mobility, which has created a huge impact on an individual’s social status prospects in future and potential opportunities (Schröder,