'Educational policy' refers to plans and strategies for education introduced by governments, for example through acts of Parliament, together with instructions and recommendations to schools and local education authorities (LEAs).



The state is now much more involved in education and its policies have a major impact on pupil opportunities and achievements; some policies have helped to reduce the inequality of achievement whilst others have helped to maintain and justify class, gender and ethnic inequality.



We also want to look at the idea of marketisation which was introduced under Thatcher in the 1988 Education Reform Act (ERA). We need to understand what marketisation is and then to evaluate it.