Ban on new grammar schools set to be axed
GRAMMAR schools could be allowed to open in new areas – ending a 24- year ban, new Education Secretary Kit Malthouse said yesterday.
He confirmed the Government was looking ‘seriously’ at the move in order to meet ‘desire from parents’.
Mr Malthouse said Liz Truss had asked the Department for Education (DfE) to find out which areas would have most demand for new grammars.
‘The PM made it clear during [the] leadership contest that she wanted to see work on grammar schools, fundamentally because there is a desire from parents in some parts of the country to have them,’ he added. He told the Yorkshire Post: ‘We’re about parental choice,
‘We’re about parental choice’
everyone needs to be able to make a choice for their kids.’
It is understood the DfE plans to research if there is enough support for the plan before taking the next steps.
New grammars were banned in 1998 by New Labour over concerns they were elitist and unfair on those who failed the 11-plus and did not get in.
Many have been turned into comprehensives and private schools, with only 163 remaining.
Those in favour of lifting the ban hope creating new grammars in the poorest areas will help bring bright deprived youngsters out of poverty.
Such a move would require new legislation. Sir Graham Brady, chairman of the 1922 Committee of backbenchers, has said he plans to table an amendment to the Government’s Schools Bill.
Miss Truss has described herself as a ‘huge supporter’ of the schools, choosing to send her own daughters to one.
She has appointed two pro-grammar MPs, Jonathan Gullis and Kelly Tolhurst, as ministers in the DfE.
Selective sixth forms are still currently allowed, as are selective private schools. Grammar schools are permitted to create satellite campuses nearby, but not in entirely new areas.
Two-thirds of Conservative voters are supporters of grammar schools and almost half agree that more should be built, a recent poll of 4,000 people by JL Partners for the Onward think-tank found. Three- quarters of these said they would send their child to a grammar school if they passed the 11-plus.