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Sunday, February 19, 2006
Selection in schools
fails most children in the UK
For those of us who are concerned about the social
implications of educational policies, here is another study that generates
concern over some policies in the UK. (Observer, Feb 19, 2006).
The majority of
children who live in areas which operate selective education do worse at school,
new research has revealed. A study of the 15 areas in England using the 11-plus
to select pupils, including Kent, the Wirral and Lincolnshire, shows that
children who do not pass the 11-plus are condemned to lower standards of
education than if they went to a comprehensive school in an area where there was
no selection. 'One in 10 children attend schools in areas that are still fully
selective,' said David Jesson, a professor at York University and author of the
report. 'My main conclusion is there is a deficit for the population as a whole
when you have these systems. Yes, grammar schools do well, but the majority of
pupils go to non-selective schools that are simply secondary moderns.'
He said these could
not be called comprehensives because all the high-performing students were at
the grammar schools. 'No parent wants his or her child to go to a secondary
modern,' he added. Jesson focused on the 75 per cent of pupils who failed the
11-plus and found they got lower GCSEs than they would if they lived somewhere
without selection. His paper will be published in the next fortnight as part of
a book, Comprehensive Education: Evolution, Achievements and New Directions. In
it he says: 'Selective school systems, and in particular the secondary modern
schools which educate the majority of pupils in these systems, underperform
substantially compared to the outcomes for comprehensive schools.' National and
individual performance would improve if the two-tier system was ended, he
argues.
Last week Tony
Blair vowed he would never abolish grammar schools. Fiona Millar, partner of
Alastair Campbell and a key critic of government education reforms, said: 'The
grammar schools do appear to do well but no one talks about the children who
don't get in.'
http://observer.guardian.co.uk/uk_news/story/0,,1713146,00.html
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