Educational Policy Making in Cardiff, 1944–1970
| Author | A. G. Geen |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9299.1981.tb00427.x |
| Published date | 01 March 1981 |
| Date | 01 March 1981 |
Educational
Policy
Making in Cardiff,
1944-1970
A.
G.
GEEN
The author
is
a Lecturer
in
Education
at
University College, Cardiff.
INTRODUCTION
An account of educational policy making in Cardiff reveals that over the
period
1944
to
1970
the local education authority took a number
of
unusual and unexpected decisions. Unlike the vast majority of county
boroughs, Cardiff failed to reorganize its elementary schools along the
lines advocated by the Hadow Report
of
1926
until the period
1950-51,
and, even then, reorganization was implemented only after a Parliamen-
tary debate in which, to the chagrin of local administrators, the House
of Commons discussed the whole question of secondary education in the
city. At a later stage, when comprehensive education became
a
major
source of controversy, control of the council was evenly balanced
between the pro- and anti-comprehensive forces, and for nearly a decade
there raged a bitter ideological conflict in which both factions devised
and engaged in a variety
of
political stratagems and manoeuvres. When
the Labour Party finally achieved a sufficient majority to proceed with
reorganization, despite pledges to end differentiation of status between
schools, it adopted
a
scheme which retained selection and preserved the
grammar schools as the chief academic institutions. This scheme was
then prematurely abandoned, and full comprehensive reorganization
planned and executed by a Conservative-controlled council which had
until
1967
staunchly opposed non-selective education and committed
itself unequivocally to the retention of the local grammar schools.
It is proposed to examine briefly the various factors which account for
the decisions taken by the Cardiff City Council over this period and to
consider a number of questions relating to the policy-making process in
general.
To
what extent were educational schemes dependent upon the
advice of local government officers? What relationship existed between
Public Administration Volume
59
Spring
1981
85
PUBLIC
ADMINISTRATION
officers and councillors? Was any significant role played by national
government? Did local teachers’ organizations or other interest groups
influence educational proposals? Is it possible to trace the planning
of
any innovation directly to the wishes of the electorate?
The study covers a wide period, during which political conditions
gradually changed. It will be argued that these changes affected the whole
policy-making process and cannot be ignored in any attempt to explain
cardinal decisions taken by the local education authority. Three distinct
phases may be observed, covering respectively the years
1944
to
1957,
1957
to
1966,
and
1966
to
1970.
Each of these will be examined in turn
in an endeavour to identify the chief forces influencing developments in
secondary education.
1944-1957
Policy making with respect to secondary education in Cardiff during the
years
1944
to
1957
was characterized by
a
high degree of local autonomy
and a manifest lack of party political activity. The Ministry was most
reluctant to intervene in the affairs of the authority, and, discussing the
development of the secondary sector in the
1950s,
one prominent member
of the Education Committee noted that ‘it was not political considerations
in London but local feelings in Cardiff which determined thinking’.
These local feelings were at no stage influenced by party political
conflict; for, although the press made reference
to
a division of socialists
in permanent opposition and anti-socialists retaining control of the City
Council, these labels in fact counted
for
little, and no attempt was made
to exclude the Labour group from the aldermanic bench or from the
chairmanship of various committees. The Labour group in turn did not
seek to impose any specific policy, and many members felt themselves to
be primarily ward representatives responsible
to
their constituents rather
than party activists. One councillor of the period described himself as a
‘cool Socialist’ concerned not to follow party doctrine but solely to
improve facilities in the area he represented.
A
further important factor was that the majority of councillors
of
that
era were working class, non-professional people who automatically turned
to the officials
for
advice. It was commonly believed that the technical
experts possessed an esoteric knowledge of administration which no
councillor could emulate, and consequently there were few occasions
when a committee member challenged the advice
of
an officer. The
general relationship between elected and permanent members
of
the
authority has been succinctly described by a Conservative councillor of
that period, who in later years became Chairman of the Education
Committee: ‘In those days council members took the advice of the
officials without qualification. We tended to say, “well, he’s worked it
all out. He is the officer and he knows best.” Then, as long as
86
To continue reading
Request your trial