video record
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Description
To create greater freedom of choice in education, it has been argued that parents should be issued with a voucher which they could exchange at any school of their choice for their child's education.... Such a system could result in bad schools closing down and good ones expanding. Parental involvement in education covild be much greater. In this programme a pressure sroup in favour of the voucher system illustrate the virtues of their idea and these are discussed critically by Leslie Wagner, Head of Social Sciences, Polytechnic of Central London and Professor Hark Blaug of the Institute of Education, London University.
Metadata describing this Open University video programme
Module code and title: ED322, Economics and education policy
Item code: ED322; 07
First transmission date: 28-08-1977
Published: 1977
Rights Statement:
Restrictions on use:
Duration: 00:24:17
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Producer: Chris Cuthbertson
Contributors: Mark Blaug; Leslie Wagner
Publisher: BBC Open University
Keyword(s): Barry Whitworth; Eleanor Klue; Freedom of choice; Gordon Richards; Jack Wiseman; Keith Carler; Marjorie Selsdon; Mrs Guyatt; Nicola Knight; Ruth Garwood Scott; Vouchers
Footage description: The programme opens with an extract from a BBC Open Door programme made by FEVER (Friends of the Educational Voucher Experiment in Representative Regions). In this extract Marjorie Selsdon briefly states the case for a voucher scheme. From the studio Leslie Wagner, Head of Social Sciences at the Polytechnic of Central London, describes the voucher scheme in more detail. He explains the relevance of the scheme to the concepts of educational equity and efficiency. A further extract from FEVER's Open Door programme. Mrs. Guyatt, Barry Whitworth and Nicola Knight describe the problems they have encountered in getting the kind of education they want for their children. Ex-headmistress Ruth Garwood Scott explains her support for the voucher system. In the studio, Wagner and Mark Blaug, of the University of London's Institute of Education, discuss the voucher scheme as presented in FEVER's film. In another short extract from the Open Door programme Selsdon and Professor Wiseman of York University describe the effect of the scheme on schools. Wagner and Blaug define the concept of efficiency in education, and how such a concept relates to the voucher scheme. Blaug describes four different ways in which a voucher scheme might be implemented. Wagner draws an analogy with the taxation system. Very brief FEVER extract in which headmaster Gordon Richards explains why the voucher scheme would make the education system more equitable. Wagner and Blaug discuss likely effects of the scheme, concluding that it is not necessarily more equitable. Blaug describes some consequences of putting schools in direct competition with each other.
Master spool number: 6HT/72633
Production number: 00525_6144
Videofinder number: 4001
Available to public: no