Education in the Inner City in the 1980s: In the Shadow of the Seventies

Abstract

Big cities have much in common: large concentrations of population bring particular problems and opportunities, irrespective of geography. This article, which deals mainly with changes affecting schools, is based on experiences in inner London, but it would be surprising if there were not similarities to developments in other urban conurbations in Europe. The Inner London Education Authority (ILEA) is the local authority responsible for the provision of education in the 12 Inner London Boroughs and the City of London an area with a population slightly in excess of 2.3 million. A decade ago, the debate about the inner cities was not limited to an analysis of their future. There were those who expressed serious doubts as to whether the inner cities had any future at all, given the complex issues they faced. London was no exception. The post-war establishment of new towns and the development of the outer suburbs brought about a movement out of the inner city of thousands of workers and their families. Many of those who remained were either elderly or young people who only intended to live and work in the city for a few years before they too left for the provinces. The pessimists foresaw an aging population in a decaying environment. In addition to this emigration from the inner city, another major demographic change took place. The birth-rate which had increased during the years 1955 to 1964 then rapidly declined until 1976. The extent of the decline is shown in Fig. 1. The consequences for the education service were serious. The emigration from the city meant that only six out of every ten children born in the inner city were likely to grow up and start their education where they were born. The combined effect of movement and roll fall meant that throughout the 1970s schools, particularly primary schools, were to face a declining population. The scale of the decrease, which was remarkable, is shown in Fig. 2. It can be seen from the figure that the effect initially was confined to primary schools but by the latter part of the 1970s secondary schools had also begun to experience a reduction in intake. By 1980, there was not a part of the inner city where the impact of the reduced school population was not making itself felt. Just as the consequences over the last ten years have been different for the two main phases of the education service, primary and secondary, so the consequences in the future will be different. Let us look at each part of the service in turn.