Search

The patchy implementation of the 1944 Education Act because of the poor post-war economy meant that there was a diverse education system divided along lines that corresponded to social class and religion. Nevertheless, the political agenda of the period was one of achieving ‘meritocracy' (hence the introduction of ‘ability tests' that would replace parental ability to pay as a criterion of receiving secondary education). The principle of ‘equality of educational opportunity' was shared by both political parties at the time. The 1945 general education returned the Labour Party to power under the leadership of Clement Atlee. Although not its first taste of government, it was Labour's first real opportunity to push its social agenda. However, in the immediate post-war context of economic reconstruction, the first social sector priority had to be the creation of the National Health Service. After all, the 1944 Education Act had just been passed and had to be implemented, a process which took the remainder of the 1940s. Tawney's ideal of the common, non-selective school, which had become known as ‘the comprehensive school', had to wait for another day. Such a unified secondary school had already had its supporters, and was first introduced in 1953 in Anglesey, North Wales, where the predominantly rural population did not, in its distribution, lend itself to the logistics of the selective system. Local politics was also conducive, as with LEAs still having sufficient power in the 1950s, some Labour authorities in London and other major cities moved to the construction of comprehensive schools, although the fact that some were still single-sex seemed to belie such a title! In most localities, however, the tripartite system of grammar, secondary modern, and technical schools prevailed throughout the 1950s and early 1960s, supported by the Conservative government from 1951 to 1964. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]