ABSTRACT
The 1944 Education Act1 in England and Wales created the tripartite system that mirrored and sustained the British class system. It was nevertheless in some ways idealistic, offering, for the first time, secondary education for all according to “age, aptitude, and ability.” The Act provided a moral rationale for education in Britain. In practice, however, this meant grammar schools for the academically able 20% and secondary technical and secondary modern schools for the rest. The 80% who “failed” the 11-plus entry test to grammar schools were substantially failed by the system. The examination system throughout the 1950s was essentially for grammar school children only, who largely came from, and would be absorbed into, the middle class (Verma, 1998). This was the form of schooling Commonwealth immigrants found in Britain and that was sustained for 20 years until comprehensive schools were developed in the 1960s. In comprehensive schools all children, except those attending private schools, were to be educated together. However, these schools that, in theory, would achieve equity, failed to ensure that ethnic minority pupils achieved. The schools remained socially stratified because of the communities they served. Within schools equity was not achieved because the values and organization usually reinforced classism and racism.
