Grammar school plans criticised


Unions have criticised a new £50 million government fund to help grammar schools expand “when schools up and down the country are desperately short of funds”.


The cash injection, announced by education secretary Damian Hinds as part of the Schools that will work for everyone consultation, will enable existing grammar schools to create satellite schools away from their existing sites. This would result in three to four thousand new places in grammar schools.


While the Conservative party had previously made proposals to end the ban on grammar school expansion, it was forced to backtrack after losing an overall majority in the last election.


Kevin Courtney, joint general secretary of the NEU education union, said the move “beggars belief” when there is overwhelming evidence that selective education leads to greater inequality in social outcomes later in life.


Chris Keates, general secretary of the NASUWT teachers’ union, said the government response to the consultation was “unlikely to assuage the concerns of many parents across the country whose children face the prospects of an increasingly narrow curriculum whilst access to a broad and balanced education is increasingly based on parents’ ability to pay”.


And GMB general union national officer Karen Leonard said that the government was “stealing from the majority of children to give a privileged few ‘more choice’.”

https://www.theguardian.com/education/2018/may/11/grammar-schools-in-england-to-get-50m-expansion-fund

https://www.teachers.org.uk/education-policies/grammar-schools