14-19 EDUCATION - LEGACY, OPPORTUNITIES AND CHALLENGES

This paper begins with an analysis of the changes in 14-19 education f rom the beginning of the 1980s until the last government's White Paper 14-19 Education: Learning to Compete, which appeared in March 1997. I t then considers the tensions in this legacy before exploring some of the issues that might be involved in realising the Labour Party's aims as set out, before the General Election, in their policy document Aim ing Higher. Finally, the authors speculate, in light of developments s ince the Labour Party's victory on 2 May, on a possible scenario for t he next decade and outline the hind of 14-19 system that we might be w anting to try to develop in the future.