The Tripartite System: The Debate Between Public And Private Schools

Words: 934
Pages: 4

Within this essay I will be discussing Grammar schools as being one educational issue that is highly debated within the media recently. Firstly I will discuss the Tripartite System which introduced the Grammar Schools within the UK education system. I will then go onto describing the issue arising from Grammar Schools and I will consider the debates that surround it from a number of stakeholders perspectives as well as what they agree and disagree on.
The 1944 Education Act was the foundation of the first state-funded secondary education of England and Wales. It created the Tripartite system where three types of schools played a part in forming this, one of which being the Grammar Schools, which were fully state-funded, the other two being
…show more content…
It leads a debate of whether or not they benefit children as well as the economic and political risks that lay behind them. Grammar Schools predominantly used to lay on and had close connection with the social class structure. (Selection for secondary education and achievement in four Grammar Schools). Grammar Schools really gained their prestige from historical means. The issue behind Grammar schools which is recently shown in articles on BBC news is the conflict of the difficulty of the 11+ exams and the question always arises, are you smarter than an 11 year old?. The 11+ exams have existed since the 1944 Act and has fundamentally been the decision on whether or not a child would get taught in a Grammar School or the other two schooling within the tripartite system. The labour government is one conflicting factor and have tried many times to abolish this, which I will later talk about in my …show more content…
From the book ‘The Education Debate’ wrote by S.J.Ball, the table within this clearly indicates how there was a high range within the financial stability of the family whether they would attend selective secondary schools. In 1923, children within a service class the percentage for attending these selective secondary schools were very high with 76.7% compared with working class families’ children with a percentage of 26.1%. This proved to show that the biggest problem within grammar schools was the inequality between the rich and poor families. Three different universities, in Bath, London, and Bristol all concluded that those who attended grammar schools earned significantly more than students who attended comprehensive schools. (The Great Grammar Debate). Their findings showed how people born between 1961 and 1983 were 2,500 people were analysed, the wage difference between the top ten per cent and bottom ten per cent of earners in grammar schools was found to be £16.41 an hour between 2009 and 2012 (The Great Grammar Debate). Only 3% of Kent’s 39 grammar schools receive free school meals, compared to 15% in its comprehensives schools (BBC- Kent Grammar Schools). Within the late 1940’s and the late 1960’s, from BBC findings, about a quarter of secondary