ABSTRACT
The state always has a vested interest in the education of the population. That interest is self-preservation. Plato considered the social impact of education, and oudined a policy that has remained unchanged fpr two millennia: that one of the central purposes of a state educational system is to preserve and pass on the values of that system's society (Carr, 1991). The school is seen as a microcosm of the social macrocosm, and education as a process in which different groups absorb the social values and technical skills that, in theory, will best equip them to succeed in their personal and working lives and, via their assimilation into various predetermined social strata, to contribute to either the perpetuation of the status quo, or the development of the state. In effect, every nation that sponsors a statemaintained educational system imposes a national curriculum.This perennial policy can clearly be identified in the United Kingdom since the inception of a system of secondary education.
