Educational disadvantage in the English context
The English education system has many achievements of which it can be proud. Free, universal elementary education was established well before the end of the nineteenth century, and the principles on which it was based have extended progressively ever since. By the middle of the twentieth century, all children had access to high-quality, free education through the secondary phase, increasingly offered in non-selective “comprehensive” schools, and accompanied by a wide range of special education and other supportive provision for children experiencing difficulties. From the 1980s onwards, strenuous efforts have been made to improve the performance of the education system to the point where “world class” standards can be achieved. How successful these efforts have been is open to some dispute, but nonetheless, the latest available PISA results show England safely ensconced in the top half of the OECD country “league table”, and performing ...