Electoral results

LIBERAL DEMOCRATIC PARTY

LIBERAL PARTY

The beginning of the Liberal Party goes back to the end of the 17^th century as it descended from the Whigs, an opposition to the Tory Party in Parliament. Offi­cially it was formed in 1877. During the second Half of the 19^th century many working people looked to the Liberal Party to provide a policy different from that of the Tory Party and their supporters. So in the middle of the 19^th century Liberals represented the trading and manufacturing classes, supported by pop­ular elements, which pressed for social reforms and extension of the franchise¹. «Civil and Religious Lib-erty» was taken as the Party's slogan. For long peri­ods up to 1914 the Liberals had a parliamentary ma­jority. While in power they introduced a number of reforms and innovations including free elementary education.

After the World War I the Liberal Party was grow­ing weaker, many representatives of the working class and bourgeoisie were leaving the liberals. Having suf­fered several defeats at the elections the party could never overcome the blow. It declined rapidly as a parliamentary force, its place being taken by Labour Party, which has become an opposition and alternative gov­ernment to the conservatives.

In 1988 the Liberal Party merged with the new Social Democratic Party forming «Liberal Democrats».

In 1981 a new party was formed to try to break the dominance of the Conservative and Labour. Some Conservatives and extreme right wing of Labours left their own parties to join the new Social Democrats. The new party agreed to fight elections in alliance with the small but long-established Liberals, forming the Alliance. After unsuccessful results of the 1987 election the Liberal Party merged with social Democratic Party (in 1988) to become the Liberal Democrats. Its aim is to attract the votes of the middle ground between Labour and the Conservatives and opponents of both parties, of those who are disillusioned with their policies. But parliamentary representation is almost insignificant so far (22,6 % of vote but 3,4% of MPs). But the Party plays a certain role with the possibility of tipping the scales between the two largest parties.

The Liberal Democratic Party aims to build a liberal democratic society in which every citizen shall possess liberty, property and security and none shall be enslaved by poverty, ignorance or conformity.

Today the examination of the electoral results shows a growing north-south division in the people's support of the parties. The Labour Party is supported overwhelmingly by Wales, Scotland and North England. Those are people concerned with survival and security, who value the virtues of loyalty and solidarity. They are generally people of lower incomes. They are about 30 per cent of the population and they are in decline.

The Conservatives are supported by South England. Those are people ambitious for success, wealth or power, for which outward appearances are important. They are «self-made», natural Conservative voters. By 1990 they were about 34 per cent of the population, but also in decline.

There is the third category of voters, which is markedly growing. Those are people concerned with personal development and individual freedom, with strong moral motivation such as concern about world ecology, nuclear power or weapons, or civil liberties. Such people constitute 36 per cent of the population and are increasing. Most of them are supporters of Liberal Democrats.

QUESTIONS

1). What is the peculiarities of the electoral system in the UK?

2). What are the main political parties in the UK?

3). Who are called “Tories”?

4). Who were called “Whigs”?

5). Who supports the Labour Party?

6). What other political parties do you know?

7). How often are general election held in the UK?

8). What are the electoral results?

Lecture 8.

Education System in the UK.

Organization of education.

Secondary education. Schools.

Higher education.

Colleges and Universities.

BRITISH SYSTEM OF EDUCATION.

SCHOOL EDUCATION HISTORY OF BRITISH SCHOOLS

British system of education is supposed to provide equality of opportunity for all. But it sustains inequality at every stage. It mirrors the English social system, as it is class-divided and selective. The first division is between the rich and the poor, those who can pay and those who can not pay. The second — between those selected for an intellectual training and those not so selected.

British education is rather complicated, inconsistent and highly varied. It is so because it has grown out of many different originating causes trying to satisfy many requirements.

A brief reference to the past will help to understand it better. Though cathedral and monastic schools appeared as early as the 7^th century, the real starting-point of the British system of education is not the establishment of schools but the rise of the Universities of Oxford and Cambridge. Oxford is mentioned as long ago as 1168 as a place to which students gathered to listen to a famous master. The first mention of Cambridge is when a number of Oxford students removed there in 1209. There follows the founding of a large number of the colleges at Oxford and Cambridge. The next step was taken in 1382 when a first Grammar School was founded at Westminster to act as a feeder to College at Oxford. In 1440 King Henry VI founded Eton College at Windsor. The 16^th and 17^th centuries saw the foundation of numerous Grammar Schools in various parts of England.

But these schools were not the beginning of national education. They were intended to supply the Universities with good Latinists and the State and Church with learned people.

At the beginning of the 19^th century the national interest in education took the form of voluntary effort. There were a number of enthusiasts who established Day Schools, Sunday Schools, Ragged Schools and Orphan Schools.

By the Education Act of 1870 a State system was established aiming to fill in the gaps by the voluntary system. In districts in which schools were needed School Boards were set up so as to provide schools at the local expense. They were known as board schools.

It may be said that after 1870 England had a national though not a uniform system of elementary education. Elementary education was now available for every child. Attendance was made compulsory in 1880.

The Education Act of 1902 is the corner stone of the State system of Education in England and Wales. It abolished the School Boards and set the Local Education Authorities (known as LEAs). It encouraged the LEAs to supply or assist education other than Elementary (Secondary, Modern and Technical Schools). It rescued the Voluntary Schools from their financial troubles by requiring the LEAs to finance them partly. As a result elementary education became a single system, compulsory and free of charge. Then followed the Act of 1944 about compulsory and free education for children aged 5-15. It provided three stages of education: primary (elementary), secondary and further. The Act of 1972 announced a ten-year education programme setting the school-leaving age 16. Before 1936 it was 14, after 1936 — 15. Though the 1972 Act abolished the fee for education in state secondary schools the education authorities made use of other methods of class selection into the privileged types of secondary schools.

The state policy in education was based upon the theory that intelligence was innate at birth, fixed for life, unchangeable and limited to a minority. Hence every pupil should be educated according to his age, ability and aptitude.

The selection was made on the results of the «eleven plus» («11+») examination, taken on leaving primary school. About three-quarters of pupils went to «secondary modern* schools which prepared pupils for manual, skilled and clerical employment. The remaining quarter went to grammar schools the pupils of which were expected to go to university or some other form of higher education.

This system gave the chance of a better education to a very small number of children preventing many boys and girls from getting it. By the 1960s there was increasing criticism of this streaming of ability particularly by political left. It was recognised that many children who failed «11+» examination might well develop academically later but were denied this opportunity and this resulted in a great waste of human potential. The Labour government's solution was to introduce a new type of school, comprehensive, which should admit children of all abilities (without 11+ examination) and which should be a combination of grammar and secondary modern schools under one roof. Between 1965 and 1980 almost all the old grammar and secondary modern schools were replaced by co-educational comprehensives.

The result of the reform was very mixed and caused new criticism and argument. The best comprehensives aimed at grammar school academic standards, while the worst sank to secondary modern ones. Many grammar schools refused to join the comprehensive experiment. Of the 174 old direct grant grammar schools, 119 decided to leave the state system rather than become comprehensive. Thus the comprehensive reform unintentionally reinforced¹ an educational elite which only the children of wealthier parents could join.

Also there was a move away from the traditional formal teaching and factual learning to what was called «progressive» education: greater pupil participation and discussion, with greater emphasis on comprehension and less on the acquisition of knowledge. Not everyone approved and there was a demand to return to old-fashioned methods. Surveys of the adult population in 1980's revealed that half the population could not do simple mathematics or read a railway timetable correctly, and that 16 per cent could not locate Britain on a map of the world. Among ten-year-old pupils in seventeen countries, English children were second worst in science. The worst Japanese school was better in primary science than the best 60 per cent of English schools. Although A-level science pupils in England are among the best internationally, they are a small group.

To improve the situation there followed the Education Act (1986) and the Education Reform Act of 1988. The main reforms included the introduction of a National Curriculum, which sets out in detail the subjects that children have to study and which are compulsory up to the age of 16. It also introduced periodic formal assessment of progress and the level of achievement at the ages of seven, eleven, fourteen and sixteen. This reform is considered to be of great importance as it removed the local authority control and for the first time in British history introduced National Curriculum thus exercising government control over all kinds of schools and their standards of progress.

BRITISH SCHOOL TODAY

British education today is aimed to realize the potential of all, for the good of the individual and society as a whole. The general policy for education which is now being implemented throughout the United Kingdom is much the same with some national variations in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. All schools of Great Britain are known as state schools (state supported, state maintained) and independent schools.

Independent schools are fee-paying schools ranging from public schools with centuries-old traditions to private experimental schools.

Schools supported by the state from public funds are of three kinds:

1) county schools — the largest group, provided and maintained by Local Educational Authorities (LEAs) wholly out of public funds, no fees are charged to parents; they are primary schools (infant and junior), comprehensives, some grammar schools, secondary modern schools, sixth forms;

2) voluntary schools — financially aided and controlled by government but provided by a voluntary body; mostly they are Church of England schools or Roman Catholic schools.

3) direct-grant schools — completely independent of LEAs, receiving grants from the Department of Education and science; these are mainly grammar schools, which receive the grant for taking pupils from the state system (from a quarter to a half, the rest being fee-paying pupils).

SOME ESSENTIALS

• School education is divided into three stages:

primary, secondary and further education. In England and Wales the primary cycle lasts from 5 to 11. Children of 5 enter infant schools moving on to junior school at the age of 8 and then on to secondary school. The transition from primary to secondary school is made at the age of 11. Most secondary schools in Britain (about 90 per cent) are comprehensive schools. They are state schools, which take children of all abilities (84%). About 6 per cent of children go to grammar schools, state schools which take only students who pass «11+» examination.

• About 7 per cent of children go to private schools, which do not receive any money from the state, parents pay for their children's education. The most expensive private schools are called «public» schools.. • Full-time education is compulsory for 12 years for all children between the ages of 5 and 16.

• All schools, including independent schools, are subject to official (government) inspection and control.

• Local education authorities (LEAs) finance most schools and further education at the local level. They employ teachers and allocate budgets to schools. School budgets include books, teachers' salaries and cleaning.

• Schools can apply for «grant-maintained status*. This means that they «opt out» of LEA control and receive funding from central government, becoming direct-grant schools.

• Every state school has a governing body, responsible for the school's main policies. It includes teachers, parents and members appointed by LEAs.

• The British school syllabus is divided into Arts (or Humanities) and Sciences, which determine the division of the secondary school pupils into study groups: a Science pupil will study Chemistry, Physics, Mathematics (Maths), Economics, Technical Drawing, Biology, Geography; an Art pupil will do English Language and Literature, History, foreign languages, Music, Art, Drama. Besides these subjects they must do some general education subjects like Physical Education (PE), Home Economics for girls and Technical subjects for boys, General Science, Information Technology (IT), Sex Education (SE), Religious Education (RE). Computers play an important part in education. The system of options exists in all kinds of secondary schools.

• In English schools by law all children receive religious education and take part in daily prayers. But parents have the right to withdraw their children from such classes. In all kinds of voluntary school there is opportunity for denominational instruction. Roman Catholic children generally have their own classes.

• Physical education, including organized games, is a part of the curriculum of all schools. Organized games include tennis, cricket, football, hockey, netball and lacrosse.

• Medical Inspection and free medical and dental treatment for all children attending state schools is provided. LEAs have a duty under certain conditions to assist financially in the provision of transport for pupils between home and schools.

• Boys and girls are generally taught together in primary schools. Most of secondary schools are co­educational, mixed schools. But the majority of the secondary schools in the independent sector (private schools) are either for boys or for girls. Most children go to the school whose «catchment area» they live in. This is usually, though not always, the nearest school to their home.

• Most pupils in British schools wear school uniform, which differ from school to school. The favourite colours for school uniforms are blue, gray, black and maroon.

• The pupils who violate various school regulations may be punished in the following ways: for lateness, truancy they may be reported to the Headmaster or named in school assembly. They may be detained in school after ordinary hours.

• Corporal punishment has recently been banned in state schools. But in most public schools it is still allowed. Caning is the usual punishment for serious misbehaviour in class, damage and vandalism. Many teachers remark that standards of discipline have fallen since corporal punishment was banned by the government.

1 Each school has its system of rewards: medals and prizes for the best pupils,

1 Schools in Britain have three terms a year, each with a short midterm break for one week (known as «half-terms») and longer holidays at Christmas, Easter and in the summer.

1 All schools assess children's progress by their own internal tests at the age of 7, 11, and 14. Sixteen-year-olds take the General Certificate of Secondary Education (GCSE). At the age of 16 pupils can leave school or continue their education.

1 The system of marking may be out of ten (nine, eight and a half...), in grades (A, B, C, D, E), in % — the highest is 100, the lowest — «naught*, the pass is 50% or higher.

1 About 45 per cent of 16 -year-olds stay in full-time education. Some attend so called «sixth form» (sixth form of a secondary school or a sixth form college) which require two more years of study after GCSE and which prepare them for taking «A» -level examinations. For other school — leavers and for adults of all ages, universities, polytechnics and other colleges provide a vast net of courses, both academic and vocational.

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