Changes to the Education System of England and Wales in the last 70 years: Part 4: 1970-1979

This article traces the development of the education service in the 1970s and deals with the influence of local government reorganisation, particularly in the West Riding of Yorkshire and the move to the right in both the Conservative and Labour parties at least, in part, caused by difficult economic conditions. The outcome was that the climate for the development of schools was very different at the end of the decade than it had been at the beginning. Local authorities were organised differently and professional concerns and pressures became very different. There was also an increase in the influence of parents in the state system. Keywords: local government reorganisation; raising of the school leaving age; local government governanc