Academic selection provides both an incentive to play by the rules that will stand children in good stead in later life – and a means of escaping those who don’t.
It is wrong to hold selection tests on specific days – with mock papers available for middle class parents to buy and tutor their children for.
Anything that looks like a return to the “best-and-the-rest” model of the past will fail. Our modern, diverse school system is the key to restoring selection.
Marr asks her if there will be a return to grammar schools.
Shouldn’t the next Prime Minister be a Leave supporter? Do you support local authorities setting up new selective schools? Will you serve a full term if you win in 2020?
Romanticising the model of selective education doesn’t change the fact it doesn’t actually improve performance that much.
Willetts has no objection to getting local councils to build more houses, and “hopes and believes” Osborne will find ways to alleviate the cuts in tax credits.
Plus: I hate Frankfurt. Love for Javid. Morgan’s popularity rises. And: No-one wants to see Danny Alexander’s ginger nuts swinging their way down Whitehall.
There is to be a new grammar school, sorry, grammar school extension in Kent. But shouldn’t the good people of that county have charge of such decisions?
Vouchers, selection, top-up fees, school autonomy and a renewed focus on the arts: let’s bring the advantages of private education to all.
I believe we’ll win. But I could be wrong. So all this could be only a few weeks away…
The reality is that they can spout educational pie-in-the-sky because they know (as do we all) that they won’t be forming the next government.
“So you don’t arrive at a decision because you’re a barrister and therefore you favour the bar or because you’re a solicitor and therefore you favour the solicitors’ firms.”
Only by raising the quality and esteem of vocational and technical learning can we secure a future for academic selection.
This policy refuses to recognise local choice, is supported by a poor evidence base, and proposes large-scale upheaval for uncertain gain.