Senior figures from both parties reacted to reports PM Theresa May may be considering lifting the existing ban in England to boost “social mobility”, calling it a backwards step.
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Ofsted chief Sir Michael Wilshaw has said bringing back grammars would be a “disaster” and warned that they make nearby schools worse. Researchers found that disadvantaged children in local authority areas were only half as likely to enrol in a grammar school as other children with the same academic ability.
“Selection belongs in the dustbin of history and has no place in modern society”.
“Policies on education will be set out in due course”.
While Owen Wilson, Labour leader contender, said that he would “fight tooth and nail” to stop the move, claiming that grammar schools, “entrench disadvantage – they don’t overturn it”. “That means a national drive to improve education for the highly able in comprehensives, backed by fairer admissions policies in urban schools”.
But Mrs May’s education secretary Justine Greening said she was “open-minded” about allowing new grammar schools.
We must ensure that every single child can go as far as their ability and their aspirations will take them.
Mrs May, who herself attended a grammar school which became a comprehensive school while she was there, is thought to be a supporter of new selective schools.
Opponents argue the 11-plus exam led to elite schools dominated by middle-class children while the majority of young families from poorer backgrounds received sub-standard education in secondary moderns.
“I’ve never seen a campaign yet to bring back secondary moderns and that’s what the equivalent of bringing back grammar schools will be”.
Neil Carmichael, the MP for Stroud and chair of the education committee, has already announced his opposition to the move, and the votes of former education secretaries Michael Gove and Nicky Morgan, who blocked a change to the law on grammars during their tenures, will be critical to getting legislation passed.
Any return to the grammar system can be expected to be divisive.
And sure enough, as the number of grammar schools expanded, the number of working class kids who went on to get respectable white-collar jobs increased, and when the grammar schools were phased out, that upward mobility ground to a halt.
Given that around just 2 per cent of children at grammar schools are eligible for free school meals, it comes as no surprise that in 161 of the 163 grammar schools left in this country, fewer than 10 per cent of pupils are eligible for free school meals.
“Even some Conservatives will agree with me that this simply wouldn’t be right”. The Prime Minister knows this because the evidence is clear but it would seem that, once again, we have a leader more concerned with currying favour than making a difference. “Instead of allowing grammar schools to expand, the Government should concentrate on tackling the shortage of teachers so all children are taught by qualified teachers”.
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He said: ‘The principle of thinking that having a handful of additional grammar schools is going to solve our social mobility issues is one which I would wish to really challenge.
