A social critic is defined as someone who criticises the problems in society such as the education system, health system or the justice system. Barry Hindes is a social critic as in his book "A Kestrel for a knave" he criticises the tripartite education system, Barry Hindes once said, "I don't like what it did to kids like Billy." Additionally Barry Hindes criticises the working class inability to communicate with one another through the example of the Caspers.

The central focus of the novel is on the school and the tripartite education system, which contained grammar, technology and secondary modern schools. Billy attends a secondary modern school because he wasn't academic enough to pass his eleven-plus and go to a grammar school. As Billy Casper attends a secondary modern school, he is labelled from an early age, as the teachers expect Billy and his classmates to "go down...