Education Act 1976

The primary impact of the act was the establishment of the "comprehensive principle" in law. Section 1 of the act explicitly stated that local education authorities "shall, in the exercise and performance of their powers and duties relating to secondary education, have regard to the general principle that such education is to be provided only in schools where the arrangements for the admission of pupils are not based (wholly or partly) on selection by reference to ability or aptitude".^[4]

On 25 November 1976, just days after the act received Royal Assent, the Department for Education and Science issued Circular 11/76. This required local authorities that had not yet submitted schemes for comprehensive reorganisation to do so.^[5] The act sought to complete the transition away from grammar schools and secondary moderns and legally enforce the abolition of the Eleven-plus examination, a transition process which had been heavily promoted via voluntary requests to local authorities since 1965.^[1]

The compulsion for local education authorities to go comprehensive was short-lived. Following the Conservative victory in the 1979 United Kingdom general election, the new government led by Margaret Thatcher passed the Education Act 1979, which formally repealed Sections 1, 2, and 3 of the 1976 Act.^[6] This removed the legal requirement for comprehensive reorganisation and restored the right of local authorities to retain selective secondary schools.

The remaining provisions of the 1976 act remained on the statute book for a further seventeen years until they were entirely repealed and consolidated by the Education Act 1996.^[7]

• 1976 Act contents at legislation.gov.uk