Grammar schools

David Davis, this week in the Spectator debate came close to attacking his own party's education policy.

Why is it, he asked, that public school boys now run the country, - the media, the law, business, with hardly anyone from the public sector in sight. The same might be said of the Conservative shadow cabinet.

He reminded his listeners what grammar schools did in the past for able children from poor homes, council estates and even broken homes, those for whom the comprehensive experiment has done little. He described the grammar schools as the greatest instrument for social mobility ever invented.

The result, he suggested, was that many who might have emerged as leaders have been held back. The winners are the public schools who teach just 7% of the population, with perhaps a few lucky enough to attend one of the few remaining grammar schools.

The potentially outstanding are hobbled, the disadvantaged are not helped, and all except the fortunate few do worse than they would have done. We have an education system which ranks increasingly lower in comparison with other countries, despite the marks achieved in devalued examinations. In the name of ideology our future is being diminished.