ABSTRACT
THE main emphasis throughout this study of secondary education has been upon its social rather than its educational aspects. Attention has been directed not towards the school as providing a preparation for leisure or for citizenship, but as a training for certain occupational groups. An effort has been made to place the secondary school in its relationship to the social and occupational structure of contemporary England, and to examine it, not as the purveyor of a certain type of education but as the avenue to a certain level on the social and occupational scale. This approach may well seem to the educationist to ignore the most vital aspects of the educational process. On the other hand it is important to understand the impact on the educational system of forces of a primarily sociological nature. The relationship between the school and the social structure is of practical as well as theoretical importance, and the success or failure of many educational policies has rested upon a correct interpretation of their interdependence.
