equal education/services for all? late night muse.....

Just having a moment of thought writing here........
The state education system in England seems to encompass a central theme, in terms of providing a universal and equal education for all – the national curriculum being the framework that springs to mind here – (though it’s questionable if it successfully achieves the outcome of a ‘broad and balanced curriculum’ for all.) More recently, legislation updates like the Children Act 2004, incorporating the Every Child Matters agenda, again outlines...er..... ‘Every Child Matters’ of course! Whilst the update to this Act was a reflex to a series of unfortunate events that resulted in the death of a child and highlighted the serious incompetence of many children’s services working as one, it also drew ‘fresh’ attention (I say ‘fresh’ here, because all recent reading suggests that this isn’t a new issue addressed by theorists!) to the existence of the ever present social gap that significantly impacts on educational (and life?) success. If Every child really does matter – then where they live, their social ‘class’, their family’s wealth (or lack of it) – should not be an issue when it comes to providing state funded opportunities like health and education. Of course – geography and social class does matter and so does family income......which is why there are highly funded intervention programmes in place in this country – they are there to ultimately bridge the gap; to afford the same opportunity to the masses.....and here we are, back to what I said at the beginning – universal and equal education for all! Of course...we all know, it’s not that easy.....and more importantly... and since the investment is long it’s very hard to measure - in terms of success – at a national level anyway!
In lecture today was interesting because (in a round about way ) we discussed the issue of what makes interventionist community education successful....... and that’s a tough question to answer because.... whilst there’s a very good chance that some people within communities will wholly benefit from this service - the idealism behind community education is that it’s in place to give opportunity to change/improve for all – targeting areas that are perceived to need intervention to bridge the gap......not all will take the opportunity, want the opportunity or feel they actually ‘need’ the opportunity...... so....is the system failing these people? Or is the fact that the services are there for the taking – used or not - a measure of success? My initial reaction was to assume the latter –since you can take a horse to water and all that.....but...perhaps there is an element of ingredient that can be added (from a recipe like pen green for example) – that might make the opportunities on offer easier to sample?......so....am unsure if this universal education theme really can work in the real world........will continue to ponder this thought.....sorry if this reads a little disjointed...am just thinking ‘on cyber paper’ tonight!