ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses upon the selection function. It examines the place of selection in a class society, and looks at the part education plays in this process and the situation in contemporary Britain. Several major attempts have been made in Britain since the turn of the twentieth century to structure the way in which the educational system fulfils its selective function so that it operates in a more egalitarian fashion. The major changes in the relevant educational ideologies can be traced by examining the way in which definitions of educational equality have changed since it is these definitions that have largely governed the nature of the educational reforms that have occurred. One simple way of measuring the manner in which the contemporary educational system is fulfilling the selection function is to examine the destinations of those leaving the various categories of schools, since to a very great extent the given types have class biases in their composition.
