By the 1960s many people believed that a child's chances should not depend on their parents' money or on whether they were a boy or a girl. Education was seen as the best way to break down these barriers. This lesson looks at two big changes: schools that took all children together, and a huge expansion of university places.
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Unlock This CourseRemember, the eleven-plus was the exam taken at 11 that sent children to a grammar school or a secondary modern school. By the 1960s many parents, teachers and politicians thought this was unfair. Children were labelled as successes or failures at 11, and fewer working-class children won grammar school places. The answer was the comprehensive school.
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The Labour government elected in 1964, led by Harold Wilson, backed comprehensives. In 1965 the Education Secretary, Anthony Crosland, sent local councils a document called Circular 10/65. It asked them to draw up plans to end selection at 11 and go comprehensive. At first this was a request, not an order. Many councils, especially Labour-run ones, agreed, and comprehensives spread quickly. In 1976 Labour passed a law to force the remaining councils to change. The Conservative government elected in 1979 scrapped it, and some areas, such as Kent, kept their grammar schools. Even so, by the early 1980s most secondary pupils in England and Wales went to a comprehensive.
No child was told at 11 that they had failed. Every child could study exam courses, and more working-class pupils stayed on and took exams. But many comprehensives put pupils into ability groups called streams, so labelling carried on inside the school. Middle-class families often moved near the best comprehensives, and private schools and the remaining grammar schools kept their advantages.
Most comprehensives were mixed, so girls and boys learned side by side. Old habits lasted, though: girls were often steered towards cookery and typing, and boys towards woodwork and science. The Sex Discrimination Act (1975) made it unlawful for schools to treat girls and boys differently. In later years girls' exam results rose above boys'.
In 1963 a committee led by Lord Robbins reported that far too few young people had the chance to go to university. It said places should be available to everyone able to benefit from them. The government accepted its main aim and expansion sped up.
The idea came from Harold Wilson, and the Minister for the Arts, Jennie Lee, drove it through. The Open University received its charter in 1969 and took its first students in 1971. Lessons came from BBC television and radio programmes, printed course books posted to students, tutors and summer schools. Nobody needed exam results to start.
It was a second chance for adults who had left school at 15 or 16, or who had never been able to go to university. Students could keep their jobs. Many women, who were looking after children at home and could not attend lectures, studied for a degree.
In the early 1960s women were a minority of university students, and their share grew over the following decades. Universities still took far more students from middle-class homes than from working-class homes, but the gap was narrowing.
The 1944 Education Act gave free secondary schooling but kept selection. The 1960s and 1970s took the idea of equal opportunity much further. Class barriers were lowered at 11 and at 18, and gender barriers began to fall too. But children from different classes still had unequal chances, and old ideas about what was suitable for girls lasted a long time.
This is a Paper 2, Section B type (b) question. Explain two causes, and for each one show how it led to the outcome. One cause alone can score at most 4 of the 8 marks.
Explain TWO causes of the growth of comprehensive schools in the 1960s and 1970s. [8 marks]
One cause was growing dislike of the eleven-plus. Children were sorted at 11, and those who went to secondary modern schools had fewer chances to take exams, while fewer working-class children won grammar school places. Parents and teachers who thought this unfair wanted one type of school for all children, and comprehensives, which took every child with no entrance exam, offered that.
A second cause was the Labour government elected in 1964. Ministers such as Anthony Crosland wanted to widen opportunity, so in 1965 Crosland sent councils Circular 10/65, asking them to draw up plans for going comprehensive. Many Labour-run councils agreed, and in 1976 Labour passed a law to make the rest follow. This government pressure made comprehensives spread across the country.
What lifts it to the top level: each cause is supported by precise facts and the answer explains how the cause led to the growth of comprehensives.
Write one paragraph per cause and end each with the words "this led to comprehensives because ...". A second cause is worth as many marks as the first.