ABSTRACT
This chapter explains the claims of privatisation advocates, assesses the strength of the concepts in relation to education policy, and discusses the actual performance of the education system during this period against the case made by the free marketeers at the outset. Privatisation through the Assisted Places Scheme was justified primarily on the positive impact it would produce among those whose intellectual abilities were held back by financial and social disadvantage. The Assisted Places Scheme was followed, in 1986, by the development of City Technology Colleges (CTC), institutions which were to be independent of the local authority and where ‘all or a substantial part of the capital costs would be met by private sponsorship’. As in the case of CTCs, the promotion of grant-maintained schools was to be characterised by highly preferential treatment in terms of revenue and capital expenditure.
