Privatisation and Marketisation

Abstract

The term ‘privatisation’ is capable of many different interpretations where education is concerned. For many on the far right of the political spectrum, it embraces all those measures designed to work towards a situation where, eventually, all schools will be in private ownership and parents will be supplied with educational vouchers or ‘credits’ to spend at the schools of their choice. Yet it can also be broadened to cover all those initiatives which have the effect of blurring the boundaries between the private and state sectors. While privatisation in the purest sense has not so far been achieved, developments since 1979 have created a situation where there is considerable state support for private institutions, where state schools find themselves increasingly reliant on support from local businesses and where schools are pitted against one another in a cut‐throat competition to attract pupils.