Labour signals end to grammar schools with review of 11-plus
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Your support makes all the difference.Charles Clarke signalled an end to grammar schools yesterday by telling all education authorities that have kept the 11-plus they should review their admissions procedures.
In a markedly tougher stance towards grammars, the Secretary of State for Education told MPs "selection regimes inhibited educational opportunities" for thousands of young people.
His comments, to the Select Committee on Education, will reignite Labour's 30-year war with the country's 162 remaining grammar schools, which was, in effect, postponed last year when ministers announced for the first time that they were giving them extra cash to develop partnerships with their neighbours.
Research by academics at York University has shown that pupils make more progress in areas with comprehensive schools than those in areas that retain selective education.
Mr Clarke told councils that arguments over the future of grammar schools should centre on their effect on standards rather than selection itself. If the 36 councils that still had grammar schools failed to end selection, he indicated, government policy could be reviewed. He told MPs: "I would hope and believe that the authorities will look at their own practice from the point of view of education standards."
Estelle Morris, who resigned as Secretary of State for Education six weeks ago, was revealed last night to have instituted a review of government policy on selection.
At present, selection can only be ended by parents triggering a ballot in their area, which requires 20 per cent of those eligible to vote in it signing a petition calling for it. In Kent, the area with the largest number of grammar schools, it would need the signature of 50,000 parents to trigger a ballot.
Graham Lane, chairman of the Local Government Association's education committee, said Ms Morris had been looking at simplifying the ballot procedures.
Mr Clarke will unveil plans today to give headteachers unprecedented powers to serve on-the-spot fines of up to £50 on the parents of truants. Teaching unions are sure to claim the idea is unworkable.
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