Introduction

There are two broad approaches to the writing of history: thematic or narrative. The former may allow for a more rigorous analysis, while the latter permits a more even flow and an easier understanding of the broad picture. The more contemporary the history, the more difficult it becomes to be objective: to see issues in their proper perspective or to give due weight to one aspect of life against another in the continuous flow of development. With that in mind, this chapter will look at the issues thematically. If objectivity is difficult for events through which one has lived, it is all the more difficult when the writer has been a participant, even if in a minor fashion, in many of the events to be related. While an attempt has been made in this chapter to present a balanced review, there can be little doubt that partisan opinions will, from time to time, have broken through. It is to be hoped that this will help to enliven the discourse, rather than distorting the reality.

The year of the Robbins Report is taken as the starting point for this chapter as the report is often represented as being the beginning of the development of mass education in this country. It was, of course, no such thing. There was a significant growth in the numbers of students in the post-war period before Robbins, with a 46% growth from 1953 to 1963. Even by 1973, ten years after Robbins, the number had risen only to 239,000, although this represented more than 100% growth during the previous decade.