Education Secretary Justine Greening said Britain’s education system has transformed “beyond all recognition” since grammar schools were first introduced.
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” We need to widen choice”, Sir Michael told the BBC Radio 4 Today programme.
Theresa May has unveiled plans for sweeping education reform in England including the news that she intends to lift the restrictions on grammar school expansion.
“I want Britain to be the world’s great meritocracy – a country where everyone has a fair chance to go as far as their talent and their hard work will allow”, she said.
Mrs May told the 1922 Committee of backbench Tory MPs on Wednesday that “selection by house price” already existed within the state system, with wealthy parents able to get a place for their children at the best schools by buying homes in the catchment area.
The former Labour cabinet minister argued that poorer children fall below the national average in exam performance in areas where there are more selective schools. When Justine Greening gave her statement in the Commons this afternoon, she repeated numerous Prime Minister’s own lines about selection already existing through house prices and so on.
Alan Milburn, chairman of the Government’s Social Mobility Commission, is quoted in The Guardian newspaper as saying the move would be a “disaster”.
May, and other Tory MPs who mainly reside in party’s right-wing, argue it improves social mobility as it gives kids from less affluent backgrounds a better chance to fulfill their academic potential.
While Patsy Kane, executive head teacher of two Manchester academies – Levenshulme High School and Whalley Range High School, said the schools were similarly committed to inclusive comprehensive education.
But shadow education secretary Angela Rayner said that while Labour had promised “education, education, education” the Conservative government’s policy amounts to “segregation, segregation, segregation”.
Nicky Morgan joined other Tories voicing concern over the controversial proposals by warning the Prime Minister she risks undermining years of progress by opening new grammars. For decades, British children were tested at age 11.
Under the new proposals, universities will be expected to use their educational expertise to do more to raise standards in schools.
Under the plans, new or expanding grammars will be required to implement one of three measures meant to ensure that selective education is not reserved for the better off.
Private schools will have to do more to help the state sector if they want to keep their tax breaks, Theresa May has said, as she claimed her major changes to education would make Britain a “great meritocracy”.
Research by the Sutton Trust shows less than three per cent of grammar schools entrants are entitled to free school meals. It is a future in which every child should have access to a good school place.
The Education Secretary said she remained open-minded on the issue of selection and would announce the Government’s policy in due course.
He told Today: “I know they talked about grammar schools in their manifesto”. But we have 70 years of evidence now, which demonstrates the exact opposite. “There’s no evidence at all that that is the answer to numerous problems in our education system”.
Mrs May will say: ” We are going to build a country that works for everyone, not just the privileged few.
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What about the children left behind by selective education?
