Marketisation
of Education
An attempt to improve education by making
schools and colleges compete for students in an
'education market'. Key policies: 1988 Education
Reform Act, Specialist School status, Academies.
Marketisation…a bit more depth.
The process of applying market forces of
consumer choice to education.
 Create competition between suppliers of
a service.
 Reducing state control
 Increasing parental choice and
competition between schools.

The A to C Economy?


Schools under pressure to stream and select
pupils – if they want a good league table
position and attract pupils and funding.
This policy of publishing league tables
creates an “A to C economy” (Gillborn and
Youdell) – the schools ration their time and
resources to focus on the students who are
capable of getting 5 grade A to C to boost
the league table position.
Name six factors that led to
marketisation of schools

External factors…decisions made by
government, typically in the 1980s and
1990s.
Introduced:
 Funding formula – gives a school the same
amount of money per pupil.
 Exam league tables – ranking each school
according to exam performance
 Increased competition between schools to
attract pupils.
Competition and Selection



Marketisation can also explain why schools
are under pressure to select more able and
largely middle class pupils who will help the
league table rankings.
This will increase popularity and therefore
funding will increase as the school will not
be under subscribed.
While popular schools can “screen” pupils
others are obliged to take students which
may lead to a fall in results and the school
becoming less popular and attracting less
funding…
Will Bartlett (1993)
The pressures from marketisation have
lead to schools…
 Cream-skimming – selecting higher ability
students who gain the best results and
cost less to teach.
 Silt-shifting – offloading students which
learning difficulties who are expensive and
get poor results.

Signing a contract…
One way that WC students can be
disadvantaged is through the home/school
contract. Selective schools often require
parents to sign demanding contracts.
 Gewirtz – contract which contained
everything from attending parents evening
to having a well stocked pencil case – a
governor thought that such contracts
would bring the “right sort of parent” to
the school.

The cost…

Ball (1994)…schools have had to spend
more on marketing themselves to
parents, often at the expense of spending
in other areas such as SEN.
Political Background
These policies come from the NEW
RIGHT
 Starting point is the 1988 Education Act
introduces by the Conservative
government under the leadership of
Margaret Thatcher.
 BUT
 These policies were continued by New
Labour post 1997 emphasising standards,
diversity and choice.

A new three part system?
Sheila Macrae (1997) sees the same pattern
in post sixteen education.
 Top – selective 6th form attracting middle
class students providing highly academic
courses leading to university
 Middle – general further education colleges
catering for WC students offering vocational
courses
 Bottom – government funded schemes
providing low level courses leading to low
paid jobs.

Why?
New Right believe…
 State control leads to low standards
 Inefficiency
 Lack of choice for parents

By introducing market forces schools will
improve to attract more customers or go
out of business.
Parentocracy
Miriam David (1993) describes this as a
parentocracy as the power is moved away
from the schools and the teachers and
moved towards the parents.
 Advocates believe that this creates
greater diversity and choice for parents
and that standards are raised through
competition.

Policies
Publication of exam league tables and
OFSTED reports
 Business sponsorship of schools
 Formula funding
 Schools being able to opt out of LEA
control

The Myth of Parentocracy
The system “looks” fair – parents have
the choice to send their children to a
range of school.
 But…do all parents have the same
freedom to choose?
 Do all parents have the same cultural and
economic capital?
 The system creates a myth that education
is fair and equitable.

Effects
The reproduction of inequality – middle
class parents working the system
 Ball (1994) – these polices legitimise
inequality.
 Middle class pupils get the best education –
the schools want these pupils as they get the
best results so will compete for them.
 The funding formula means that the most
popular schools will get the most money and
provide better facilities.
