Michael Gove is to be the education secretary in the Conservative-Liberal Democrat coalition.
Among the likely policies will be the "pupil premium" which aims to target extra funding at schools serving disadvantaged pupils.
This was promised by both Conservatives and Liberal Democrats.
A flagship policy of the Conservative manifesto was "free schools", which would allow parents or other groups to take public money to run schools.
Vince Cable is to be the coalition's secretary for Business, Innovation and Skills, which in the previous administration had responsibility for higher education.
PledgeMr Cable has signed a pledge that he will vote against any attempt to raise tuition fees during the next parliament.
There will be scrutiny of the detail of the incoming government's plans for education - to see how it accommodates the views of the two parties in this coalition.
The free schools policy was criticised heavily during the election campaign by the Liberal Democrats, who argued it would take away funding from other schools.
Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg, in his capacity as Liberal Democrat leader, described this policy last week as a "disaster for standards".
The two parties in the coalition were also divided in the control of local schools, whether it should be the local council or other providers.
The advocates of free schools will want to see that schools can be run outside of council control.
Their opponents, who say this is privatisation by the back door, will want new schools to remain under the strategic control of the local authority.
There will also be questions about funding.
The pupil premium proposed by the Liberal Democrats, which aimed to cut class size, depended upon an extra £2.5bn. They said it was not viable without this additional money.
BBC News
