For nearly two decades there has been a ban on new grammar schools being created, but prime minister Theresa May has announced that this will now be lifted.
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Education Secretary Justine Greening told Parliament on Thursday that the government believes in so-called “selective grammar schools” but did not believe in a return to a “winners and losers” style split caused by 11-plus tests.
Theresa May’s controversial education proposals will call to end a current ban on opening grammar schools and allow schools to introduce selection “in some circumstances”.
Mr Gove’s decision not to join other Tory rebels, including the previous education secretary, Nicky Morgan, in opposing Mrs May will be met with… Many grammar school students continue to perform exceptionally well at GCSE, A-Level and the International Baccalaureate and, as a effect, many transfer to top university destinations both in the United Kingdom and overseas.
“The truth is that we already have selection in our school system – and its selection by house price, selection by wealth”.
Indeed, the attainment gap between rich and poor pupils is reduced to nearly zero for children in selective schools.
In an effort to pacify concerns that new selective schools may damage social mobility, Mrs May told the 1922 Committee she wanted new grammars to be “inclusive and not exclusive”.
“Once people see the details of the consultation documents – the conditions that will be applied to those grammar schools that want to expand and those schools that want to adopt selection criteria in their admissions, all the conditions about ensuring they have a significant intake from children from more disadvantaged backgrounds – my view is that will be very persuasive”, Gibb said.
She will say: “We are going to build a country that works for everyone, not just the privileged few”.
Under the plans, any state comprehensive or academy will be allowed to convert into a grammar school as long as they fulfill certain criteria.
She told the gathering of backbench MPs that the best state schools have become the preserve of Britain’s elite, effectively shutting out the majority of children from the best education.
“Tutoring is a £2 billion industry, 20% of which is tutoring for grammar school entry”.
Labour said creating grammar schools would lead to “social segregation”.
Addressing fears about a return to the grammar school-secondary modern divide, Gibb said we were “not in that world anymore”.
The general secretary of school leaders’ union NAHT, Russell Hobby, described the plan as “a risky distraction from the real issues in education”.
Much of the debate will focus on whether grammar schools are good for social mobility, but it is also worth considering the political calculations behind a policy change that goes against the Govian thinking that has driven government education policy since 2010.
In an interview with The Guardian Alan Milburn said he will wait to hear the Government’s proposals but added: “F rankly, I still remain sceptical about the social mobility dividend”.
“Today’s announcement has opened up opportunities for the council to consider and review how we support the school system to develop further opportunities for our residents”.
“But the only place it has got us to is a place where selection exists if you’re wealthy – if you can afford to go private – but doesn’t exist if you’re not”, she said.
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“However you package this up, the Tory Government are bringing back selection to the United Kingdom education system”.
