Social Status and Secondary Education since the 1944 Act: Some Data for London

In Britain, secondary education of the grammar school type provides the main avenue for upward social mobility for the children of the ‘working class’. Successful attendance at a grammar school is becoming increasingly the necessary first qualification for entry into salaried occupations. Before the 1944 Education Act, the role of the grammar school in this respect was very limited because of the marked under-representation of children from the lower socio-economic groups. ¹ But it is generally believed that recent educational and economic changes have considerably altered the social class composition of the grammar schools. The abolition of fees and the allocation of places on the basis of a standardized selection procedure should have led to more places being offered to children from the lower socio-economic groups. Further, because of full employment and the raising of the statutory school-leaving age to fifteen, it is probable that parents have become more ready to allow their children to accept a place in a grammar school.