New vocationalism—the relevance of the 1890's

Abstract

Abstract This paper attempts to highlight certain similarities that prevailed in central educational administration in the decades of the 1890's and the 1980's, and use them to provide an historical context for the current debate on pre-vocational education and T.V.E.I. It is argued that the Education Department pursued a policy of drift in the 1890's partly shaped by the sideways pressure from the Science and Art Department and upward pressure from certain local education bodies. The question is asked whether the D.E.S. at present, is pursuing a similar policy in reaction to similar pressures. Two extreme viewpoints are presented as to the possible effects of the M.S.C.'s effects on compulsory state education and the question is posed as to whether the experience of the 1890's in central educational administration has an equal relevance to the 1980's in that, ‘In the short-term the disunity proved fruitful, in the long run it turned out to be counter-productive’.