Sevenoaks MP Michael fallon defends grammar schools.
The great grammar school debate rumbles on. I’ve had lots of calls and emails from both sides. So let me set out my views.
Selection is tough, especially at such a young age. I fully appreciate
the difference it can make; I see at first hand the frustration of
parents whose children don’t quite make the grade. To them, it’s no
argument that selection runs through life: they want the best for their
child.
We have the selective system here in Kent. Successive administrations
at County Hall have supported it. If they think it’s unpopular,
opponents have two ways of changing it.
First, they can campaign against it at KCC elections. But when the
county was run by a Lib/Lab coalition between 1993 and 1997, nobody
made a move.
Second, opponents can use the 1998 Education Act to demand a local ballot of all parents. Nobody in Kent has done so.
I’m not saying that everybody supports selective education. But there’s
clearly a majority for the system we’ve got. And if you move here from
London, you know what you’re looking at.
So I defend grammar schools. As we don’t have one in Sevenoaks, I’ve
been working on a plan to set up a campus here of an existing grammar
school. This would cut travel costs and time, especially for younger
pupils.
Do grammar schools help social mobility? Yes, they do: I’ve helped
many parents at appeals who never went to grammar schools themselves.
In areas like Dartford, Gravesend and east Kent grammar schools are
ladders out of deprivation for pupils from very poor backgrounds.
Are grammar schools divisive? Well, they suit pupils who are more
academically inclined. But the real question should be “is the
alternative as good?”
Successive governments have tried to beef up standards at
under-performing comprehensives. John Major started City Technology
Colleges (like Leigh CTC near the Dartford Bridge). Tony Blair
championed City Academies; there are several now in Kent.
Here in Sevenoaks both Bradbourne and Wildernesse Schools are now
specialist schools. Bradbourne has been successfully modernised; it
must be Wildernesse’s turn next.
But we need to do more to raise the profile and esteem of our
non-grammars. I want them to become schools of choice, offering good
technology and vocational skills even earlier. And I’d like to see
them each linked up with one of our independent schools so that they
can benefit from the teaching and management skills of the private
sector.
But none of this will happen by criticising grammar schools. On the
contrary, we should be asking tougher questions: why are grammar
schools over-subscribed? why are they so successful at what they do?
And learning lessons for the rest of the education system.
