School selection

The government could perform a U-turn on school selection and scrap its policy of allowing its new flagship specialist secondary schools to select pupils.

 

Education minister Stephen Twigg has said that ministers were considering whether to drop rules which allow the majority of the 1,950 specialist schools to select up to 10 per cent of their pupils through aptitude tests.

 

The comments follow a critical report from the Commons education select committee.

 

Stakeholder Response: Institute of Education

 

Professor Geoff Whitty, director of the Institute of Education, said: "Over the years there have been many attempts to devise tests of aptitude, as distinct from ability.

 

"The select committee was rightly sceptical about this distinction and it is good to see that the government is willing to rethink its position in the light of the evidence.

 

"However, in practice, the government’s declared commitment to all-ability schools is much more seriously compromised by academic selection for grammar schools and by covert selection on the part of some ‘comprehensive’ schools that control their own admissions.

 

"Research suggests that this last form of selection will only be overcome by a serious attempt to rationalise admissions policies and monitor admissions practices."

 

Stakeholder Response: NASUWT

 

Chris Keates, acting general secretary of NASUWT, said: "The current admissions process is stacked against parents and pupils from low socio-economic backgrounds. It lacks clarity and is frustrating, non-inclusive and inequitable.

 

"Selection in the education system promotes elitism and brands youngsters as 'failures' from a very early age.

 

"NASUWT welcomed the select committee's recommendation for revised and strengthened regulations to bring coherence to the system, with particular regard to removing the discriminatory practice of interviewing prospective pupils and their parents."