Putting aside the deeply depressing budget deficit reduction programme (although it was absolutely necessary), the Queen’s speech this week was very exciting indeed. Its general thrust pointed towards the rolling back of the bloated state and the implementation of choice and power to the people. The government have also decided that education will be one of their priorities. Largely, their proposals were based on the principle of allowing more choice for parents of where to send their children to school. Choice, as we know from our experience with restaurants, mobile phone operators or supermarkets, tends to raises standards. All of this is greatly welcome.
And yet, I can’t help thinking ... Was there not a system that existed not so long ago in this country where the standard in schools was better than it is now, and alternatives existed for parents who could not afford to send their children to a private school? Does anyone remember ‘grammar schools’? As I have mentioned before, the detoxification of the Conservative brand means that the Tories can no longer talk of things that they used to believe in, for fear of being associated with the ‘Nasty Tories’ of old. The trouble, of course, with this is that sensible ideas are dismissed even before the debate has begun.
We should now be honest with ourselves and admit the comprehensive schooling system in this country has utterly failed our children. All evidence suggests that since the eradication of the majority of grammar schools, social mobility has declined. The comprehensive system has ended meritocracy and, at the height of irony, now selects pupils to go to the best schools depending on the wealth of their parents. This is because, as everyone knows, the best schools are in the catchment areas where house prices are the highest.
The Left insisted that grammar schools were unfair because they were elitist and harsh for the ones who missed out. Their response to this perceived unfairness? Instead of supporting a system that gave hope to poor children who are bright, they advocated a system where the poor could only be losers. The winners were the rich who could afford private schools, or at the least an expensive house in a good catchment area. But of course, this is secretly very enticing for the Left; better to all be equal and all losers than be unequal and have winners.
They have persisted with this warped ideology with great vigour, carrying it through the educational system to university. You only need to look at Labour’s obsession with getting half the population to university to see what I mean. The righteous left believe that it is unfair for only a few people to go to university because- dare we say it- they worked hard or deserved to go on the basis of their academic ability! No – this, to them, is an outrage. Instead, everybody should go to university irrelevant of merit. What better way to ensure this than creating an endless number of nonsense universities, with worthless courses, and (worst of all) handing them a fortune of debt for the pleasure?
It is a great lie that we have been telling our children for far too long.
The reality is that grammar schools did need reform, not least in the perception that if you didn’t get in you were loser. I have always thought this to be utter tosh. When I look around at my contemporaries and indeed the generation that went before us, there are countless numbers of people who have made a great success of their lives without any academic ability. That was because you don’t necessarily need academic brilliance to get on in the world. I fear for the generation of children that have been told stay in education at any cost, even if they are not right for it. It’s this group of people that the great lie will hurt the most.
So yes, I do welcome the choice reforms, but it is still not clear how these will affect things in real, practical terms. The grammar school system, albeit with reform, could be easily re-implemented and would improve our children’s prospects over night. But alas nobody seems to mention them anymore...
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