A Study of Secondary Education Reform in the United Kingdom : Comprehensive Schools and Diversification Policies

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Labour Government, currently in office in the UK has been promoting policies characterized such features as increasing new kinds of secondaxy schools, giving more powers individual schools managing their owa matters, and emphasizing parental choice of schools We axe interested in influences of such policies on comprehensive schools, which have traditionally been supported by labour Party and have become a large majority of secondary schools So we tried to grasp main features of these policies and real conditions of schools through literary reviews and visiting schools and researchers in the UKWhile policies of current government which focus increasing new kinds of secondary schools are aiming at raising school standards through parental choice and competition between schools for the UK to survive economic competition among developed countries, we can find another aspects of policies, attaching importance to support deprived areas and families Those policies are characteristics of socia … More l democratic policies emphasizing welfare and support, while anther aspects of policies are following neo-liberal ideals emphasizing competition.New kinds of secondary schools are trying to introduce sponsorships and another supports from outside schools, and with these supports are focusing on particular specialism within National Curriculum to make their own particular characteristics and ‘ethos'. Those characteristics and ‘ethos' would help parents choose their children's schools. However since those new kind of secondary schools have been remodeled or reestablished from existing, in some case failing, schools, they are not free from their predecessors' evaluation, and how to overcome such evaluation seems to be their future challenge. And especially in the case of academies, which are invested lot of public resources, they must prove their cost-effectiveness.At present, the Education and Inspection Bill 2006 has been introduced into the Parliament in February, and under deliberation. We feel very sorry this study ended before the final fate of this new legislation. Less