Conservatives promise return to grammar schools - but only in Wales
David Cameron's refusal to allow the creation of new grammar schools will come under fresh pressure as his own Conservative Party promises a return to selective education in Wales.
The Welsh Conservatives’ shift – revealed in the Daily Telegraph – will reopen the debate about allowing academic selection in the state school system elsewhere in the UK.
Mr Cameron has antagonised many traditional Tories by opposing schools that select by academic ability, saying that the party’s education policy should focus on creating academies and free schools.
But Angela Burns, Conservative education spokesman in the Welsh Assembly, reveals on Wednesday that if the party took power in Wales, it would create a system where children are educated in either “academic” or “vocational” streams from the age of 14.
“I think it is time that we revisited the successful elements of grammar schools and sought apply it to a modern Welsh system,” she said, proposing a “dual education system” with academic and vocational streams.
Under devolution, the Welsh Tories are free to set their own policy independent of Mr Cameron’s party in London, but their decision is still likely to reignite calls from English Tories for Mr Cameron to follow suit.
There are 164 grammar schools remaining in England, most of them in Kent, Buckinghamshire, Surrey, Essex, Gloucestershire, Slough, Trafford and Lincolnshire.
Current law prevents the creation of new selective schools. The Coalition says English parents who want a new grammar should set up a non-selective free school instead.
Mrs Burns’ move Wednesday raises the prospect of Welsh children being offered a selective education, if the Conservatives were ever to share power in Wales.
The Welsh Conservatives would not adopt the old system of academic testing at 11, instead separating children by ability at 14, she said.
“Instead of separating academic children from their more vocational counterparts, we could see the benefit of creating two equitable streams of education, one alongside the other, a dualling that begins at 14 – giving children the chance to develop important core subject skills before embarking on their chosen path,” she said.”
Mr Cameron’s Coalition has faced accusations that it has not done enough to increase social mobility. Advocates of grammar schools say that they allowed bright children from poorer homes to get ahead in life.
Mrs Burns cited research from London University’s Institute of Education which she said shows that the abolition of grammar schools has blocked disadvantaged pupils' “escape routes” to top universities and high-paid professional careers.
Critics of grammar schools say they are socially divisive and unfairly limit children with poor academic results early in life.
Blocking grammar schools on those grounds actually harms children from poorer homes, because it holds down standards in schools, Mrs Burns said.
“The arguments that are often used against grammar schools are made by those who are happy to sit by and allow failing schools to exist, to watch standards fall and accept that successive generations are lagging behind their peers in other nations.”
Challenging other politicians to accept the case for some academic selection in state schools, she said that the Conservatives should accept the evidence that grammar schools raise standards and increase social mobility.
She said: “Do we have the confidence to take regard of best practice and put the grammar back into education?”
Via The Daily Telegraph: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/education/educationnews/10226290/Conservatives-promise-return-to-grammar-schools-but-only-in-Wales.html