Grammar Schools

Government plans to expand grammar schools in England.

22:05 10 September 2016

Education secretary Justine Greening has said that the government wanted to offer parents a wide choice of schools after a document proposing new grammar schools was photographed outside No 10.

 

She said that she recognised the debate over grammar schools was “emotive” and that government plans would be set out “in due course.”

 

"There will be no return to the simplistic binary choice of the past where schools split children into winners and losers, successes and failures," she promised.

 

On Wednesday evening, Prime Minister May talked about the plans saying that she wanted “an element of selection” in the educational system. 

 

There are currently 163 grammar schools in England and an additional 69 in Northern Ireland.

In 1998, a law was created by the Labour government prohibiting the creation of new grammar schools in England. Education policy is devolved in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.

 

Sir Michael Wilshaw, chief inspector of schools watchdog, is one of those who oppose the plans. He said that the idea that the creation of new grammar schools can benefit poor children was “tosh” and “nonsense”.

 

Meanwhile, former Lib Dem Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg accused the government of “foisting their own evidence-free prejudices upon us” saying that it does not have the mandate to expand grammar schools.