A Study On The Education Reform Act 1988 In Britain

At the end of the 1980s, Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher,in her third term of power introduced the famous Education Reform Act 1988 and carried out drastic reforms on out–of–date British education. The Education Reform Act 1988 embodied the concepts and ideas of the Thatcher governmental education reforms. The promulgation and application of the Act , in fact, was an important reform in the history of the British education reforms. The Education Reform Act 1988 made specific provisions on English courses, exams, enrollment, education appropriations and management, whose contents related to primary, secondary and higher education. The Education Reform Act 1988 could not be compared by any other past education acts on the scope and intensity of education reform. It is generally agreed that the Education Reform Act 1988 is one of the most important and most far-reaching education legislation in England and Wales after the adoption of the Education Reform Act 1944. This paper takes Education Reform Act 1988 as the research object, explains its contents, explores its causes , analyzes the effectiveness of its implementation , explores the existing problems , points out Major government's amendment and improvement after Thatcher government and assesses its historical status.Preface briefly introduces the significance of studying the Education Reform Act 1988, value and innovation, synthesis research of academic history , the ideas of writing this article and research methods.This body paper is divided into four major parts:The first part is about the unique contents of the Education Reform Act 1988. It introduces the appearance of the Education Reform Act1988, then leads to its unique contents. During the introduction of its contents, it focuses on the introduction of developmental process of each policy, compared to the past educational policies, highlighting the prominent characteristics of the Education Reform Act 1988. The second part mainly explores the causes of the appearance of Education Reform Act 1988 . It mainly analyzes from five aspects: from the viewpoint of politics, the Education Reform Act 1988 was the embodiment of the "Thatcherism" on education policy; from the viewpoint of economy ,the Education Reform Act 1988 was the echo of the economic reforms in the field of education; from educational ideology and education policy, the Education Reform Act 1988 was the results of criticism to Progressive Education Thought and reflection on General School Education Policy; from the viewpoint of education management system , the Education Reform Act 1988 was the result of denying drawbacks of the Britain's education management system ; Education policy-makers directly promoted the formation of the Educational Reform Act 1988 , and played a positive role to its appearance.The third part mainly analyzes the implementation of the Act , adjusts and improves it. It mainly analyzes from three aspects: Firstly, analyzes the effectiveness of the implementation of the Education Reform Act 1988; Secondly, explores the existing problems that were brought about by its implementation; Finally points out Major government's amendment and improvement after Thatcher government to the emerging problems.The last part comments on the historical status of the Education Reform Act 1988. The Education Reform Act 1988 is a milestone in the history of education reforms in Britain, which changed the Britain's education management system; introduced the"competitive mechanism of market", and laid the foundation of education reform ever since the1990s. Although the Education Reform Act 1988 is considered the most radical education reform acts, it is rooted in British soil and still embodies the progressive characteristics of British reforms. In addition , the Education Reform Act 1988 also helped speed up the formation of European Single Market , and greatly enriched the contents of the world's education reforms.Conclusion mainly specifies some regular conclusions and useful revelations shown in the Education Reform Act 1988. First of all, we know two distinct education management systems were carried out in Britain in the past war, then we can draw a conclusion, that is, we should have an appropriate "degree" on the centralization and decentralization in educational management. Secondly, although the Education Reform Act 1988 is considered the most radical education reform act, it still reflects the characteristics of gradual reforms in Britain .Thirdly, we can see clearly the guiding role that ideology has played in the Education Reform Act 1988. In addition, any reform initiative may result in a lot of new problems, no matter what the problems are, they must be adjusted and improved in the future reforms. Only in this way, will the outcome of the reform be retained and sustainably developed forward .