The Tripartite System, known colloquially as the grammar school system, was the structure by which secondary education was organised in England and Wales between the 1944 Butler Education Act and the Education Act 1976, and in Northern Ireland since the Education (Northern Ireland) Act 1947. Australia See also Education History The Roman occupation of Britain was the first period in which the area of present-day England and Wales was administered as a single unit (with the exception Year 1944 ( MCMXLIV) was a Leap year starting on Saturday (link will display full calendar of the Gregorian calendar. The Education Act 1944 changed the education system for secondary Schools in England and Wales. Northern Ireland (Tuaisceart Éireann Ulster Scots: Norlin Airlann) is a Country within the United Kingdom, lying in the northeast of Secondary schools were divided into three categories, Grammar schools, Technical schools and Modern Schools. A Secondary Technical School was a type of secondary school in the United Kingdom that existed in the mid-20th century under the Tripartite System of education A Secondary Modern School is a type of Secondary school that existed in most of the United Kingdom from 1944 until the early 1970s under the Tripartite System Pupils were allocated to each according to their performance in the Eleven Plus examination. In the United Kingdom the Eleven Plus or Transfer Test is an Examination administered to some students in their last year of primary education It was the prevalent system under the Conservative governments of the 1950s and 60s, but was actively discouraged by the Labour government after 1965. The Conservative Party (officially the Conservative and Unionist Party) is a Political party in the United Kingdom. The Labour Party is a Political party in the United Kingdom. Founded at the start of the 20th century it has been since the 1920s the principal party of the It was formally abolished in England and Wales in 1976, giving way to the current Comprehensive System, although elements of similar systems persist in several English counties. A comprehensive school is a Secondary school and State school for children from the age of 11 to at least 16 that does not select children on the basis of academic The merits and difficulties of the system proved a contentious subject, and continue to divide public opinion in England and Wales.
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Prior to 1944 the British secondary education system was a fundamentally ad hoc creation. Access was not universally available, varying greatly by region. Schools had been created by local government, private charity and religious foundations. Local governments are administrative offices that are smaller than a State. Education was often a serious drain on family resources, and subsidies for school expenses were sporadic. Secondary education was mainly the preserve of the middle classes, and in 1938 only 13% of working class 13 year olds were still in school.
Many of the schools created since the 1870s were grammar schools, which offered places based on an entrance test. Places were highly desired and seen as offering a great chance at success. These schools were widely admired, and were to become the model by which education would be reformed from the 1940s.
There was also a strong belief in the value and accuracy of psychometric testing. Psychometrics is the field of study concerned with the theory and technique of Educational and Psychological Measurement, which includes the measurement Many in the educational establishment, particularly the psychologist Sir Cyril Burt, argued that testing students was a valid way to assess their suitability for various types of education. Sir Cyril Lodowic Burt ( March 3, 1883 – October 10, 1971) was an English educational psychologist who contributed to [1] Similar conclusions were drawn in a number of other countries, including France, Italy, Germany and Sweden, all of whom operated a state-run system of selective schools. This article is about the country For a topic outline on this subject see List of basic France topics. Italy (Italia officially the Italian Republic, (Repubblica Italiana is located on the Italian Peninsula in Southern Europe, and on the two largest Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany ( ˈbʊndəsʁepuˌbliːk ˈdɔʏtʃlant is a Country in Central Europe. "Sverige" redirects here For other uses see Sweden (disambiguation and Sverige (disambiguation.
The 1926 Hadow Report had recommended that the education system be formally split into separate stages at eleven or twelve. [2] Before this point, there had been no defined barrier between what are now known as primary and secondary education. Primary education is the first stage of Compulsory education. Australia See also Education The novelty of this break would encourage the establishment of selection at the point when pupils were changing schools.
The 1944 Butler Education Act radically overhauled education in England and Wales. The Education Act 1944 changed the education system for secondary Schools in England and Wales. The Education (Northern Ireland) Act 1947 set out a similar restructuring for Northern Ireland. For the first time, secondary education was to become a right, and was to be universally provided. It would also be free, with financial assistance for poor students. This was part of the major shake-up of government welfare in the wake of the Beveridge report. For the Scottish footballer and athlete see William Beveridge (footballer William Henry Beveridge 1st Baron Beveridge ( 5 March
In addition to promising universal secondary education, the act intended to improve the kind of education provided. Children would be provided with the type of education which most suited their needs and abilities. Calling their creation the Tripartite System, education officials envisaged a radical technocratic system in which skill was the major factor in deciding access to education, rather than financial resources. Technocracy: A form of government in which scientists and technical experts are in control "technocracy is described as that society in which those who govern justify themselves It would meet the needs of the economy, providing intellectuals, technicians and general workers, each with the required training.
The Act was created in the abstract, making the resultant system more idealistic than practical. In particular, it assumed that adequate resources would be allocated to implement the system fully.
The basic assumption of the Tripartite system was that all students, regardless of background, should be entitled to an education appropriate to their needs and abilities. It was also assumed that students with different abilities were suited to different curricula. It was believed that an IQ test was a legitimate way of determining a child's suitability to a particular tier. An Intelligence Quotient or IQ is a score derived from one of several different Standardized tests attempting to measure Intelligence.
There were to be three categories of state-run secondary schools. Each was designed with a specific purpose in mind, aiming to impart a range of skills appropriate to the needs and future careers of their pupils.
It was intended for all three branches of the system to have a parity of esteem. The appropriate type of school for each student would be determined by their performance in an examination taken in the final year of primary school.
Alongside this system existed a number of public schools and other fee-paying educational establishments. The term public school has two distinct (and virtually opposite meanings depending on the location of usage in the United States, Australia and These organised their own intakes, and were not tied to the curricula of any of the above schools. In practice, most of these were educationally similar to grammar schools but with a full ability range amongst their pupils.
The Tripartite System was arguably the least politically controversial of the great post-war welfare reforms. It had been written by a Conservative, and had received the full backing of Prime Minister Winston Churchill. The Conservative Party (officially the Conservative and Unionist Party) is a Political party in the United Kingdom. Sir Winston Leonard Spencer-Churchill, KG, OM, CH, TD, FRS, PC, PC (Can ( 30 November 1874 Even the most aristocratic Tories saw it as a way of reinvigorating upper class control of society.
Many in the Labour party, meanwhile, were enthusiastic about the ability of the Tripartite System to enable social mobility. The Labour Party is a Political party in the United Kingdom. Founded at the start of the 20th century it has been since the 1920s the principal party of the See also Economic mobility Social mobility is the degree to which in a given society an individual's family's or group's social status A first rate education would now be available to any capable child, not simply a rich one. The tripartite system seemed an excellent tool with which to erode class barriers.
In spite of this broad approval, the resources for implementing the system were slow in coming. The logistical difficulties of building enough secondary schools for the entire country delayed the introduction of tripartite education. It was not until 1951, and the election of a Conservative government, that the system began to be widely implemented. Some Historians have argued that tripartite education was the Conservative answer to the attractions of the Welfare state, replacing collective benefits with individual opportunities. This article refers specifically to the Welfare state of the United Kingdom. Even so, there was still a dramatic shortfall in resources for the new education system.
The most important result of the lack of money was the disappearance of the third part of the system – the technical schools. Very few existing schools could fulfil the technical role, and the priority remained grammar and modern schools. The tripartite system was, in effect, a two-tier system with schools for the academically gifted and schools for the others. [3]
Grammar schools received the lion's share of the money, reinforcing their image as the best part of the system, and places in grammar schools were highly sought after. Around 25% of children went to a grammar school, although there was a severe regional imbalance, with many more grammar school places available in the South than in the North, and with fewer places available for girls. This was partly the result of a historical neglect of education in the north of England, which the tripartite system did much to correct. Nevertheless, in 1963 there were grammar school places for 33% of the children in Wales and only 22% of children in the Eastern region. [4]
Modern schools were correspondingly neglected, giving them the appearance of being 'sink schools'. Although explicitly not presented as such, the secondary modern was widely perceived as the bottom tier of the tripartite system. They suffered from underinvestment and poor reputations, in spite of educating around 70% of the UK's school children. The Newsom Report of 1963, looking at the education of average and below average children, found that secondary moderns in slum areas of London left fifteen year olds sitting on primary school furniture and faced teachers changing as often as once a term. [5]
Existing beliefs about education and the failure to develop the technical schools led to the grammar schools being perceived as superior to the alternatives. The system failed to take into account the public perception of the different tiers. Whilst officially no tier was seen as better than the other, it was a generally held belief amongst the general public that the grammar schools were the best schools available, and entry into the other two types was considered a "failure".
To allocate students between the three tiers, all students were given an exam at the age of 11. In the United Kingdom the Eleven Plus or Transfer Test is an Examination administered to some students in their last year of primary education Three tests were given; one tested mathematical ability, one set an essay on a general topic and a third examined general reasoning.
Originally, these tests were intended to decide which school would be best suited to a child's needs – officially there was no "pass" or "fail" – the result determined which of the three tiers of schools the child went to. However, because of the lack of technical schools, the eleven plus came to be seen as a pass-or-fail exam, either earning children a place at their local grammar school or consigning them to a secondary modern. As such, "passing" the eleven plus came to be seen as essential for success in later life.
The eleven plus has been accused of having a significant cultural bias. This was certainly true of early papers. "General reasoning" questions could be about classical composers, or the functions performed by domestic servants – subjects which children from working class backgrounds would be less able to answer. Working class is a term used in academic Sociology and in ordinary conversation to describe depending on context and speaker those employed in specific fields or types This criticism was to become less valid as the years passed, and the science of IQ testing became more advanced and class biases decreased.
Different types of schools entered their pupils for different examinations at age 16. Grammar school students would take General Certificate of Education (GCE) O-levels, while children at secondary moderns initially took no examinations at all. The General Certificate of Education or GCE is a secondary-level academic qualification that Examination boards in the United Kingdom confer to students The O-level (Ordinary Level is a subject-based qualification conferred as part of the General Certificate of Education (GCE Instead, they worked for a Schools Certificate, which simply indicated they had remained at school until age 15. Then some of the secondary modern schools offered qualifications that were set, for example, by regional examination boards, such as the Union of Lancashire and Cheshire Institutes and the Northern Counties Technical Examinations Council. The latter exam was taken after four years at secondary school. Such examinations were comparable with the Certificate of Secondary Education (CSE) which was introduced in 1965. The Certificate of Secondary Education ( CSE) is the name of a school leaving qualification which was awarded in the period from 1965 to 1987 in England Wales and Northern Ireland Less demanding than GCE O-level, results in the GCE and CSE exams were graded on the same scale, with the top CSE grade, grade 1, being equivalent to a simple pass at GCE O-level. Secondary moderns did develop O-level courses for brighter students, but in 1963 only 41,056 pupils sat them, roughly one in ten. Some of these pupils' results were very good. Secondary modern schools continued in existence into the 1970s, and as time progressed more attention was given to the need to provide more challenging examinations, and to adopting the same approach to mixed abilities as the modern comprehensive system which existed at the same time.
Although the Butler Act offered further education for all, including students from secondary moderns, only children who went to grammar schools had a realistic chance of getting into university. The Education Act 1944 changed the education system for secondary Schools in England and Wales. Secondary moderns did not offer training for A-levels. The A-level, short for Advanced Level, is a General Certificate of Education qualification in England, Northern Ireland and Wales, Although students could obtain this elsewhere, few did and in 1963 only 318 secondary modern pupils sat the exams. [6] Only grammar schools offered facilities for students who were preparing for the entrance examinations required to go to Oxbridge. Oxbridge was originally a fictional composite of the University of '''Ox'''ford and the University of Cam'''bridge''' in England, and the term is now
In 1958 the sociologist Michael Young published a book entitled The Rise of the Meritocracy. Michael Young or Mike Young is the name of In politics: Michael Young (politician (1915–2002 Lord Young of Dartington British A mock-historical account of British education viewed from the year 2033, it satirised the beliefs of those who supported the Tripartite System. Young argued that grammar schools were instituting a new elite, the meritocracy, and building an underclass to match. Meritocracy is a system of a government or another organization wherein Appointments are made and responsibilities are given based on demonstrated talent and Ability If allowed to continue, selective education would lead to renewed inequality and eventually revolution.
This reflected a growing dissatisfaction on the left with the results of the Tripartite System. Whereas the previous generation of Labour politicians had focused on the social mobility afforded to those who passed their eleven plus, now concern became focused upon those who were sent to secondary moderns. Once the Tripartite System had been implemented, the middle classes were found to be much more likely to win places at grammar schools. It was feared that society was being divided into a well-educated middle class elite and a working class trapped in the Modern schools, or "eggheads and serfs". To some on the left, such as Graham Savage of the LCC, it became an article of faith that the only way to bring about equality was by putting everyone through the same schools. London County Council (LCC was the principal local government body for the County of London, throughout its 1889-1965 existence and the first London-wide general municipal
In July 1958 the Labour leader Hugh Gaitskell formally abandoned the Tripartite system, calling for "grammar-school education for all". Hugh Todd Naylor Gaitskell ( 9 April 1906 &ndash 18 January 1963) was a British politician leader of the Labour Party from 1955 [7] The party's fiercest opponent of the Grammar school was Gaitskell's protégé, Anthony Crosland. Charles Anthony Raven Crosland (29 August 1918 - 19 February 1977 was a member of the Labour Party and an important socialist theorist
Experiments with comprehensive schools had begun in 1949, and had taken hold in a few places in the UK. A comprehensive school is a Secondary school and State school for children from the age of 11 to at least 16 that does not select children on the basis of academic Anglesey, London, Coventry, the West Riding and Leicestershire had all abolished the Tripartite System in the 50s and early 60s, for a variety of reasons. History There are numerous Megalithic monuments and Menhirs present on Anglesey testifying to the presence of mankind in prehistory London ( ˈlʌndən is the capital and largest urban area in the United Kingdom. Coventry ( is a city and Metropolitan borough in the County of West Midlands in England. The West Riding of Yorkshire is one of the three historic subdivisions of Yorkshire, England. Leicestershire (ˈlɛstəʃə(r or ˈlɛstəʃɪə(r abbreviation Leics They offered an alternative to the existing system which was seized upon by its opponents. Comprehensives were held up as less divisive, and pupils were said to benefit from the abolition of selection.
Paradoxically, at the same time as Labour was attacking the Tripartite System for its inequalities, some in the middle class were increasingly upset at the social mobility it fostered. As educational testing became more exact and subject to less class bias, an increasing proportion of middle class children were being sent to secondary moderns. The Tripartite System fell victim to its own elitism, as the traditional supporters of the grammar schools began to worry about their own children's educational future.
By 1965 the Tripartite System was on the way out. 65 LEAs had plans to switch to comprehensive schools, and another 55 were considering it. Over the next few years this grassroots change would be reinforced by central government policy.
Labour had won the 1964 election, and Anthony Crosland became Secretary of State for Education in January 1965. He was an adamant critic of the tripartite system, and once angrily remarked, "If it's the last thing I do, I'm going to destroy every last fucking grammar school in England. And Wales. And Northern Ireland. "[8] Soon after he came to office he issued Circular 10/65. Circular 10/65 was a document issued by the Department of Education and Science (DES requesting Local Education Authorities (LEAs in England and Wales to begin converting This asked Local Education Authorities to begin planning the switch from the Tripartite System to the Comprehensive System, withholding funding for new school buildings from those that did not comply. This change would be reinforced by the 1968 Education Act. By 1970, 115 LEAs had had their reorganisation plans approved. Thirteen had had theirs rejected, and a further ten had defied the Labour government and refused to submit any plans at all.
Initially the move generated little opposition. It was portrayed foremost as an effort to raise standards in secondary moderns, and Prime Minister Harold Wilson had promised that no grammar school would be closed "over my dead body". James Harold Wilson Baron Wilson of Rievaulx, KG, OBE, FRS, PC (11 March 1916 &ndash 24 May 1995 was one of the most prominent British politicians It became increasingly apparent, however, that this would not be the case. Some grammar schools were closed, and many were amalgamated with nearby secondary moderns.
The promise of grammars for all rang increasingly hollow, as it became apparent that Comprehensivisation meant levelling out standards, rather than raising them. Opposition developed, mainly on a local level in protest of the treatment of a particular grammar school. Particularly strong opposition was noted in Bristol, after the LEA ended all grammar school education in 1964. Bristol ( ˈbrɪstəl is a city, Unitary authority and ceremonial county in South West England, west of London
However, there was little nationwide organisation among the defenders of the Tripartite System. The most prominent attack on the introduction of comprehensives came in the series of Black Papers (as opposed to White Papers, which are issued by the government) published in the Critical Quarterly by Tony Dyson and C. The Black Papers were a series of pamphlets on education their name being a contrast to government White Papers According to the Critical Quarterly website the A white paper is an authoritative report or guide that often addresses problems and how to solve them Brian Cox. Comprehensivisation was accused of using schools "directly as tools to achieve social and political objectives", rather than for the education of pupils. [9]
Debates over the Comprehensive system seemed about to become a major political issue, particularly with the election of a Conservative government in 1970. However many Tories were ambivalent on the issue. It is true that more grammar schools were closed under Margaret Thatcher than any other Education Secretary, but this was by now a local process, which was allowed to continue to avoid controversy. Margaret Hilda Thatcher Baroness Thatcher LG, OM, PC, FRS (born 13 October 1925 Her Circular 10/70 simply removed the compulsion of Circular 10/65, leaving it up to individual LEAs whether or not they would go comprehensive. The Tripartite System to continued to slip quietly into the night across most of the UK.
The end of the Tripartite System was reinforced by the new Labour government of 1974. One of its first actions on education was Circular 4/74, reiterating Labour's intention to continue with Comprehensivisation. The 1976 Education Act forbade selection of pupils by ability, officially ending the Tripartite System.
The abolition of the grammar schools proved a godsend to independent schools. Free, high-quality education for the brightest pupils had dramatically reduced their students, from around 10% of the school population to 5. 5%. However, now that comprehensive equality had been instituted, a large number of parents were willing to pay to extricate their children from it. Some grammar schools, particularly Direct Grant Grammars, converted to fee-paying independent schools, retaining selection of entrants. The proportion of children opting out of the state system continued to rise until recently, standing at around 8%.
Certain counties continued to defy the government and continued to operate a form of the Tripartite System. In most cases, grammar schools exist more as a better tier of institutions, while other schools are seen as ordinary, rather than modern school-style "failures". There are still 164 state-run grammar schools in England today, schooling 141,000 pupils. Most of the Grammar schools in England were closed or converted to Comprehensive schools in the 1960s and 1970s [10]
The 1976 Act proved the high-point of the Comprehensive movement. The Thatcher government allowed selection once again in 1979, and it has been used increasingly by individual schools eager to choose the best pupils. In 1984 Solihull attempted to reintroduce grammar schools, but was stopped by middle class opposition. Solihull (ˈsɒlɪhʌl or /ˈsəʊlihʌl/ is a large town in the West Midlands of England, with a population of 94753 In 1986 the first City Technology Colleges were proposed, arguably inspired by the Technical schools. In England, City Technology Colleges (CTCs are independent schools which charge no fees as their recurrent costs are borne by the Department for Education and Skills Today, no formal attempts are being made to restore the Tripartite System, but the perceived failure of the Comprehensive System has led the current (Labour) government to propose "Beacon Schools", "Advanced Schools" and an "escalator" or "ladder" of schools.
Secondary education in the UK has not been thoroughly overhauled since 1944, and today seems to be a complex mixture of the Tripartite System and the Comprehensive. Sir Peter Newsam, Chief Schools Adjudicator 1999–2002, has argued that English schools can be divided into 8 types (with some overlap) based on the ability range of their intake:
This ranking is reflected in performance tables, and thus the schools' attractiveness to parents. [11][12]
While vestiges of the Tripartite system persist in several English counties, the largest area where the 11-plus system remains in operation is Northern Ireland. Northern Ireland (Tuaisceart Éireann Ulster Scots: Norlin Airlann) is a Country within the United Kingdom, lying in the northeast of Original proposals for switching to the Comprehensive system were proposed in 1971, but the suspension of devolution meant that they were never acted upon. Devolution is the statutory granting of powers from the central government of a State to government at subnational level As a result, each year around 16,000 pupils in the area take the eleven plus transfer test. In the United Kingdom the Eleven Plus or Transfer Test is an Examination administered to some students in their last year of primary education Pupils are rated between grades A and D, with preferred access to schools being given to those with higher grades. Until 1989, around 1/3 of pupils who took the exam, or 27% of the age group, were given places in a grammar school. [3]
Under the "open enrolment" reform of 1989, grammar schools in Northern Ireland (unlike the remaining grammar schools in England) were required to accept pupils up to their capacity, which was also increased. [13] Together with falling numbers of school-age children, this has led to a significant broadening of the grammar schools' intake. By 2006, 42% of transferring children were admitted to grammar schools, and in only 7 of the 69 grammar schools was the intake limited to the top 30% of the cohort. [14]
In 2001, following the publication of the Burns Report on Post Primary Education, the decision was taken to abolish the examination. The subsequent Costello Report went further, and advocated an end to all selection in Northern Ireland's schooling. [15] The education minister, Martin McGuinness of Sinn Féin, endorsed the Burns Report, as did the Social Democratic and Labour Party, while the Ulster Unionist Party and Democratic Unionist Party politicians condemned it. James Martin Pacelli McGuinness (Máirtín Mag Aonghusa born in Derry on 23 May 1950 is the Deputy First Minister of Northern Ireland. Sinn Féin () is a political party in Ireland. The current party led by Gerry Adams was formed following a split in January 1970 The Social Democratic and Labour Party ( SDLP; Páirtí Sóisialta Daonlathach an Lucht Oibre is one of the two major nationalist parties in Northern Ireland The Ulster Unionist Party ( UUP, sometimes referred to as the Official Unionist Party or OUP or in a historic sense simply the Unionist Party The Democratic Unionist Party ( DUP) is the larger of the two main unionist political parties in Northern Ireland. When devolution was suspended in 2002, the Northern Ireland Office decided to continue the policy, although the phase-out date of the eleven plus was put back from 2004 to 2008. The Northern Ireland Office ( NIO) is a United Kingdom government department responsible for Northern Ireland affairs
Opinion is divided on the wisdom of the decision. The Burns Report itself called the eleven plus system socially divisive and argued that it placed unreasonable pressures on teachers. [16] Critics of the status quo in Northern Ireland say that primary education is overly focused on passing the eleven plus. Half of all students receive some kind of private tuition before going to the exam. Many pupils also say that the exam is a great source of stress. [17]
Nevertheless, the existing system has produced good results. GCSE grades are much higher than in England and Wales. The General Certificate of Secondary Education ( GCSE) is the name of an academic qualification awarded in a specified subject generally taken in a number of subjects by The number gaining five GCSEs at grades A-C, the standard measure of a good education, is ten percentage points higher. [18] AS and A level results are also better. Access to universities is more equitable, with 41. 3% of those from the bottom four socioeconomic groups going to university, as opposed to a national average of 28. 4%. [19]
Public opinion appears divided on the question. In a 2004 poll the people of Northern Ireland supported the abolition of the 11-plus by 55% to 41%. But they opposed the abolition of selective education 31% to 67%. There is widespread agreement that whatever the failings of the existing system, it is fair. [20]
The last eleven plus will take place in 2008, for the intake of September 2009. It is proposed that the replacement system have an additional transfer point at age 14, with the possibility of differentiated provision from that point. A school might, for example, specialise in providing an academic pathway from age 14. The choice of the appropriate type of school for each student is to be based on a range of measures, including performance in secondary school but excluding a separate test. [21]
A consortium of 25 grammar schools have announced their intention to run a common entry test for 2009 admissions. [22] One Catholic grammar school, Lumen Christi College, has also announced its intention to run its own tests. Founded in September 1997 Lumen Christi College is a Co-educational Catholic grammar school in Derry, Northern Ireland. [23]
The debate about the tripartite system still continues years after its abolition was initiated, and has evolved into a debate about the pros and cons of selective education in general. The debate about the British Tripartite System, also known as the grammar school system still continues years after its abolition was initiated and has evolved into a debate about the In general, the left-wing such as the Labour Party oppose selective education, whereas the right-wing such as the Conservative Party have traditionally supported it. The Labour Party is a Political party in the United Kingdom. Founded at the start of the 20th century it has been since the 1920s the principal party of the In Politics, right-wing, the political right, and the Right are positions that uphold traditional values and/or authorities The Conservative Party (officially the Conservative and Unionist Party) is a Political party in the United Kingdom.
Children's views
Arguments in favour
Arguments against
Studies of remnants of the system