MPs and academics slam '˜peverse' grammar schools policy

Acadmics and MPs have weighed in on grammar school policy

Professor David Jesson, of York university, has backed up suggestions that grammars take in fewer disadvantaged children and more well-off pupils than their mainstream alternatives.

He said the gap was even more pronounced in areas with a well-established comprehensive systems, and said the idea of reintroducing selection was “obtuse”.

Speaking during a meeting of Parliament’s education select committee, the economics expert said grammars do have “some” benefits.

But he urged the Government to do more to ensure grammars take pupils from a wider background.

“There are 152 local authorities in the country... 12 of them have 103 of the 163 grammar schools,” he said.

“In those contexts, that is where the issue about differentiation between social backgrounds is really profound.

“Something like 13 per cent of pupils... come from independent schools. Just under 3 per cent come with any measure of disadvantage.

“To that extent, the idea of reintroducing selective systems seems to me to be really quite obtuse. Perverse.”

The select committee inquiry was launched in October, in response to the Government’s plans to lift the ban on new grammars.

Today MPs also heard from education minister Nick Gibb, who said the reforms are about “making sure able children from disadvantaged backgrounds have the same opportunities as able children from more advantaged backgrounds”.

The minister argued this would not result in a of the “two-tier” system of the 50s and 60s, claiming it will instead drive up standards across all schools.

The evidence session coincided with a Labour-led debate about the policy in the Commons.

Opening the debate, Wigan MP Lisa Nandy claimed the Government’s new policy will “pit children against one another”.

She said the answer to improving education standards “is surely to make every school a good school”.

“The fact that the Government appear to have completely given up on that, in Britain in 2016, is such a pitiful sight for young people in this country,” she said.