Teacher who defied his union to back selection

A TEACHER has defied his hardLeft union bosses by supporting Theresa May’s plan to open new grammar schools.

Aleksandar Lukic, a branch representative for the National Union of Teachers, said he wanted to see a selective school ‘in every town’ to help disadvantaged pupils.

The union is opposed to expanding selection, and has vowed to resist the Government’s proposals at its annual conference in Cardiff.

But Mr Lukic, 27, bravely took to the stand to criticise his leaders’ position, which he said would do nothing to tackle inequality.

The grammar school IT teacher from Staincliffe, West Yorkshire, said he knew other staff who quietly felt the same way. ‘Obviously I know this is a settled position in the NUT and I know I’m not going to be changing anything,’ he said.

‘But ... I do think I speak for a significant number of NUT members who do support

selective education. There is contemporary evidence backing up the effectiveness of selective education for driving social mobility and I am not sure that we should be denying families the choice.’

The Prime Minister is planning the first new wave of grammars in decades in an effort to give bright, poor children access to an academically rigorous education.

On Saturday, the NUT passed a motion to lobby against Mrs May’s plan, and also to take legal action against schools with ‘grammar streams’ for bright pupils. Speaking against the motion, Mr Lukic told delegates that he wanted to see many more grammars as long as they did not take money away from other schools.

The teacher works at Heckmondwike Grammar School, where he was also a pupil. He stood as a Ukip parliamentary candidate for Batley and Spen in the 2015 election, but lost to the late Labour MP Jo Cox.