Introduction

The Labour Party manifesto of 1979 gave only three short pages to education, but by 1997 the title ‘Education, education, education’ headed the manifesto and education was declared to be the Party's first priority. The few paragraphs of the earlier document had evolved into a detailed programme of reforms. In the intervening years the successive Conservative governments had introduced what Gipps (1994) referred to as an “explosion of developments”, the most fundamental changes to the education system in the England and Wales since the Education Act of 1944. The introduction of a Parents’ Charter, open enrolment, the National Curriculum, the local management of schools (LMS) and the expansion of school inspection on an unprecedented scale had brought exposure to the education system which began with the ‘Great Debate’ instigated by James Callaghan as Prime Minister in his 1976 Ruskin Speech.

When evaluating educational policy the contribution of reforms to the development of a welfare state has been measured traditionally through their “promotion of wealth creation through preparation for economic production” and their promotion of “social justice and individual rights” (Pollard, 1997, p 364). From the 1940s to the 1970s wealth creation and social justice could be seen as the aims of the attempt to redistribute social goods on a more equitable basis which consisted in the first instance of a secondary education for all, comprehensive education and the raising of the school leaving age (Gewirtz, 1996). Inherent in the concept of social justice was the view that schools would produce equality of opportunity for children to achieve their educational potential regardless of their social grouping. During the 1980s and 1990s a crisis in confidence in the comprehensive system appears to have led the Conservative government to redefine equality of opportunity. Equality in educational achievement has given way to equality of access to provision with the development of the concept of ‘equity’ by the New Right (Brown and Lauder, 1997).

Comparing the Labour Party's manifesto of 1979 with that of 1997 reveals fundamental differences between the commitments given in each to the principle of equality of opportunity in education. There has been no reversal of Tory reforms with the return of a Labour government and yet it is not entirely possible to argue that the differences between the two Labour manifestos are the result of Labour adopting Tory policies.