Policies around school choice are very different in England and Scotland, but how does that affect parents’ levels of satisfaction?
New research covering the education systems on both sides of the border suggests that parents do not feel a greater sense of control in England, where they have more choice over where their child goes to school.
In Scotland, where families’ choice over where their children go to school is more limited, parents in some ways appear less frustrated than parents in England.
The findings emerge in a research paper by Dr Aveek Bhattacharya, chief economist of the Social Market Foundation, which describes itself as “a non-partisan think tank”. The paper was published in the Journal of Social Policy to coincide with over half a million families in England submitting their primary school applications, on 15 January.
Dr Bhattacharya said his research “compared parents in England, where the government actively encourages choice and all parents are expected to apply to multiple schools, to parents in Scotland, where the default assumption is that children will attend their local school”.
He said that UK governments since the 1990s had tried to give parents in England greater ability to decide which school their child goes to, “both as a way of harnessing ‘parent power’ to improve schools and because it was believed that parents want more say”.
Yet, his research - which draws on a survey of nearly 1,000 parents on both sides of the border and interviews with 57 families - has found that many parents in England are “cynical, fatalistic and disempowered”.
Here are key findings from the paper:
- In England, 39 per cent of pupils apply to their nearest secondary school as their first choice, and in Scotland 87 per cent attend their catchment school.
- 76 per cent of Scottish parents said they have enough choice, against 75 per cent of English parents.
- Parents in England were more likely to express frustration and disempowerment, with several describing school choice as an “illusion”.
Dr Bhattacharya sees several possible explanations in his research as to why English parents feel no better off, despite apparently having more choice:
- The opt-out system in Scotland that allows parents to make a “placing request” if they do not want their child to attend the local school is seen by many parents to be sufficient.
- Scottish parents, because they are less likely to make an application, are less likely to be rejected by a school: 17 per cent of pupils in England fail to get their first choice, but only 3 per cent of students in Scotland.
- There is “greater uncertainty” in the English system, where “families face a nervous wait before they learn the outcome of their applications”, whereas most Scottish children know which school they will be going to many months or even years beforehand.
- Rhetoric from government and in the wider society around choice in England serves to “raise expectations for choice beyond what is realistically achievable”.
Dr Bhattacharya also highlighted that previous research* had “shown that school-choice policies have limited impact on school performance, and increase the segregation of pupils of different ethnicities, socioeconomic status and levels of academic ability”.
“This research adds to the growing evidence that school choice policies have failed to bring the benefits they were supposed to,” said Dr Bhattacharya. “For all the emphasis that policymakers in England have put on increasing choice, parents south of the border are no happier with their lot than their Scottish counterparts. Indeed, many are disenchanted and dismayed.
“These findings show that parents offered a range of options for their children’s school are no happier than parents who have less choice about education.”
“That might vindicate Scottish policymakers that have resisted the marketisation of school education.”
Dr Bhattacharya said it was “unclear whether in England the genie can be put back in the bottle, as parents may resent choice being taken away from them now it has been granted”.
He did say, however, that policymakers could aim to “limit the frustration” of parents in England, “by minimising unsuccessful applications - for example, by creating more places at the most popular schools - and reducing the uncertainty of the process, for example by guaranteeing children a place at their nearest school”.
*Reference: Musset, P. (2012), ‘School Choice and Equity: Current Policies in OECD Countries and a Literature Review’, OECD Working Papers 66
