ABSTRACT
Before looking in some detail at the implications for secondary schools of the many and varied Education Acts passed by the Thatcher, Major and Blair administrations since 1979, it is important to devote some space to the principles underpinning the education system in this country in the decades immediately following the end of the Second World War. Some of those principles remain intact, but in many significant ways, we have effectively abandoned the concept of a ‘national system, locally administered’, which was such an integral part of the post-war settlement. These important modifications will be dealt with in Chapter 3.
