ABSTRACT
For the contemporary school system in England and Wales, explanations of how education is provided by schools are now couched in the language of ‘markets’. This is well illustrated by an extract from the Times Educational Supplement, which described the purpose of the 1988 reforms as the creation of a
consumer-driven market in which schools compete for pupils by trying to offer the best goods and a greater variety of choice. Under this market mechanism, schools which fail will go to the wall. But for those schools which remain, this new system will increase their power and enhance their status.
