Secondary education policy and administration in Middlesex since 1944

Abstract

The 1944 Education Act left open how the secondary schools system was to be organised. This study traces the functioning of the system in the second largest local education authority in the country over a period of twenty years. The effects on administration resulting from changes in political control are documented. Certain policy decisions are described in considerable detail in order to analyse the variety of roles played by administrators at local and central government level, by elected representatives, by teachers and by parents. The thesis is organised into three main parts. First the general background is outlined, covering the relevant issues that arose during the war-time debate on education, the 1944 Education Act and national secondary schools policy since that Act, and the local government structure established after 1944 for the provision and administration of the education service in Middlesex. The second part reviews policy-making and administration within the framework of a selective schools system. Here the formulation of the early post-war development plans and the establishment of comprehensive schools are discussed. A detailed account is given of the administrative and political complexities arising from selection at the age of eleven. The third part deals with fee-paying day grammar schools to which a minority of pupils were sent at public expense. This section assesses the nature of the inter-dependency between the private and state sectors of education, and shows the extent to which this affected local education authority decisions at various levels. It is concluded that the impetus for change in the secondary schools system does not come from any single group in society, and that changes in administrative practice are closely related to changes in public opinion. Indeed, these two factors reinforce each other.