Grammar schools aren’t the answer

GRAMMAR Schools are not the answer to raising standards in Education for our children. Constant research shows that the Comprehensive system of Education has allowed more children from all walks of life to do better academically than the selective system and it is a mystery how Teresa May can say that parents will have more choice of where to send their child to school when an exam to get in to a school means that the school will choose the child.

It has also been suggested that the pass mark for the new 11+ exam should be lowered for children from poorer backgrounds. Frankly that is an insult to every young person no matter where they live or how much money their families have.

All parents want their children to go to a good school and they have the right to expect that the system is fair and every school gets the funding it needs to give all children in their community an equal opportunity to the very best education available. A properly funded none selective system set to raise standards of both teaching and learning for all children is the only fair way to provide education in the UK.

Mrs May should not be looking to set up new schools. Free schools have already proved an expensive failure and David Cameron’s academies have cost the taxpayer millions. If the Government has £158m to spend on education now, it should be shared amongst the existing schools and not given to a chosen few.

COUNCILLOR MURIEL GREEN (Weetslade Ward)