Education & Work

English Lit: AQA GCSE Blood Brothers, topic 1.1.3

Education and Work in 20th century England

Opportunities children had in education were not equal. Russell uses his play to comment on the injustices of the education system.

Following the Education Act of 1944, the secondary school system in England was reformed so that children either went to a ‘grammar school’ or a ‘secondary modern’ school.
Which school a child would go to was decided on the results of an exam at the end of primary school.

The students with scores in the top 20% would typically go to grammar school, where they would study a very traditional and academically challenging curriculum which was designed to prepare them for university.

The other 80% of students went to ‘secondary modern’ schools.
These schools taught a curriculum which was less focused on preparing students for university, and more focused on preparing them to enter the world of administrative, practical or manual work.
Mickey and Linda go to a secondary modern school.

Edward goes to neither a grammar school nor a secondary modern, and is instead one of the 7% of children who goes to private school.
This means that his parents would pay a considerable amount of money so that he could be educated at a school with other children from similarly wealthy backgrounds.

While many people supported grammar school system because it was supposed to give equal opportunities to all students, regardless of their backgrounds, the reality was that more money was given to the grammar schools.
This meant that the secondary moderns were often badly equipped and, in some cases, failed to provide students with a good education.

It is important to recognise that Russell uses the characters of Mickey and Edward to highlight what he considers to be the injustice of the education system.
Simply because his parents are wealthy, Edward gets to go to a school which is able to adequately prepare him for university and a good career after he graduates.
Meanwhile, Mickey and Linda have to go to a school that is not able to adequately prepare them for the world of work, therefore putting them at a disadvantage.