Lessons of Thatcherism: Education Policy in England and Wales 1979-88

Twelve years after it was announced by James Callaghan, the Great Education Debate is happening. Indeed, it may already have happened. Or seen from another perspective, it may not have been a debate at all. The educational manifestation of the crisis in social democracy was marked most clearly by Labour Prime Minister James Callaghan's speech at Ruskin College, Oxford, in October 1976. His expression of concern about progressive tendencies in education and of education's poor performance in meeting the needs of industry represented the first major landmark in the move towards the dismantling of the education system created by the Education Act 1944. It represented an acceptance, if not a total endorsement, of the critique of state education which had been offered by a number of right-wing educationists in the 'Black Papers', the first of which was published in 1969.1 The main themes of Callaghan's initiative were talk of a national core curriculum and a desire for education to become more responsive to the demands of industry. A third theme was highlighted at this time by the crisis at William Tyndale Junior School in Islington, London, when a group of parents and governors lost confidence in the progressive teaching approaches employed by the staff. This affair received massive press coverage and led to a quasi-judicial inquiry which together had the effect of legitimating the notion that teachers had too much autonomy and were pursuing disruptive if not subversive ends.2 Overarching these three themes was a concern, again much promoted in the tabloid press, about supposed 'falling standards' in education.3