What is the content of the British Education Reform Act 1988? What is its significance?

(1) Contents of the "Education Reform Act 1988"

In 1988, the British Parliament passed the Education Reform Act formulated by Education Secretary Baker, namely the "Education Reform Act 1988" Act, thus launching the largest education reform in Britain since the Second World War. This law provides a legal basis for comprehensive reform of the contemporary British education system. The main spirit of this law is to reform general education while taking into account higher education. Its main contents are:

① Provisions for the implementation of a national unified curriculum. Three types of courses are offered at the compulsory education stage: core courses, basic courses and additional courses. The core curriculum and basic curriculum are collectively called the "national curriculum" and are compulsory courses for primary and secondary schools. Core courses include English, mathematics and science.

② Reform the examination system. Four national examinations are held throughout compulsory education, at ages 7, 11, 14 and 16.

③Reform the school management system and strengthen the central government’s control over education. It stipulates that primary and secondary schools managed by local education authorities can get rid of the control of local education authorities and directly accept the guidance of central education agencies at the request of a majority of parents. This policy is called the "free from choice policy" and is considered to be an important step in the UK to break away from the past tradition of decentralized management of education at the central and local levels and move towards a centralized system.

④ Reform the management and budget of higher education. Abolish the "dual system" of higher education in the UK, in which colleges are managed locally and universities are managed centrally. Some higher education institutions will break away from the jurisdiction of local education authorities and become independent institutions, acquiring legal person status.

(2) The significance of the "Education Reform Act 1988"

It can be seen from the main content of the British "Education Reform Act 1988" that the issues involved in this act are very wide , and it is very important and touches certain traditions of British education to a certain extent. Therefore, it caused an extremely strong response in the UK and is considered to be another landmark education reform bill in British history since the Butler Education Act in 1944. Generally speaking, this reform has strengthened the centralized education management, and has begun to implement unified management of courses, examinations and other issues that have never been uniformly prescribed across the country. This has had a non-negligible impact on the future development of education in the UK.