ABSTRACT
The terms of the 1944 Education Act were devised by an able group of civil servants, working with a small number of politicians of outstanding competence. In its final form, the Act was warmly welcomed by all the parties involved: Parliament, local authorities, teacher unions, the churches, the general public, and the press. The 1944 Act's first main achievement was to establish a, subsequently abandoned, division between primary and secondary education. The 1944 Act's second main achievement was to establish a school system that reflected the values of a democratic society. The 1944 Act did not change the government's attitude towards the primary school curriculum. Between 1988 and 2014, two of the main changes to education in England have been the nationalisation of the school curriculum and, at an increasing rate since 2010, the nationalisation of its publicly funded schools. The idea behind the City Technology Colleges (CTCs), promoted by Kenneth Baker, was admirable.
