2.1 John Major and the policy of the new government

When John Major became Tory leader and prime minister in November 1990, he inherited from Thatcher an education system which had suffered a massive decline in investment and a vast increase in inequality.

Public expenditure on education as a percentage of GDP had reached a high point of 6.5 per cent in 1975-6 under Callaghan's government. By 1983 it had fallen to 5.3 per cent and it remained below that level under both Thatcher and Major. By 1993 capital spending on schools was less than half what it had been in the mid-1970s.

Many in education hoped that a Major government, with Kenneth Clarke as the new education secretary, would be less harsh than its Thatcher predecessor.

They were to be disappointed: the Major administration was equally committed to selection and elitism; equally determined to continue undermining the local authorities; and equally destructive in its attitude to the teaching profession.

Thus the new government:

• established a teachers' pay review body;

• introduced a 'Parents' Charter';

• removed further education and sixth form colleges from local authority control; and

• established Ofsted and appointed Chris Woodhead to lead it.

1991 School Teachers' Pay and Conditions Act

The School Teachers' Pay and Conditions Act (25 July 1991) established a teachers' pay review body but gave the secretary of state extensive new powers.

1992 Further and Higher Education Act

The Further and Higher Education Act (6 March 1992):

• established the Further Education Funding Councils (FEFCs)

• removed further education and sixth form colleges from LEA control ;

• unified the funding of higher education under the Higher Education Funding Councils (HEFCs) ;

• introduced competition for funding between institutions; and

• abolished the Council for National Academic Awards (CNAA) .

The Further and Higher Education Act thus did for further education and sixth form colleges what the 1988 Education Reform Act had done for grant- maintained schools: it removed them from the control of local authorities and gave their governing bodies the status of 'further education corporations'.

This made it harder for local authorities to develop strategic plans - which was the intention: 'there were to be no local systems, only individual education "businesses" competing with one another for "customers" within the centrally controlled legislative framework'. [5,p.14]

1992 Education (Schools) Act

The Education (Schools) Act (16 March 1992) made provision for the establishment of Ofsted (the Office for Standards in Education).

The agency was to employ private contractors to inspect schools and its reports on individual schools would be published. Every inspection team was to include at least one member 'without personal experience in the management of any school or the provision of education in any school' . These became known as 'lay inspectors'.

The situation wasn't helped by the appointment of Chris Woodhead as HM Chief Inspector of Schools and head of Ofsted in September 1994. He appeared to take a positive delight in criticising teachers and as a result he became something of a hate figure in schools up and down the country. Morale among teachers suffered further when government ministers began using Ofsted reports as a basis for 'naming and shaming' so-called 'failing' schools.