Clause36
Education and Inspections Bill
10:30 am
David Chaytor (Bury North, Labour)
The hon. Lady makes an important point. If shecan be patient, I shall comment further on the grammar-comprehensivedivision in the hope of clarifying the point. The way in which theDepartment classifies our schools probably bears little relationship toreality. Some schools that are classified as secondary modernschools—perhaps in Kent, Slough or Buckinghamshire—have afar more comprehensive intake than some of the schools that areofficially classified as comprehensive schools. I am glad that shepicked up on my remarks on the important question of how schools areclassified. My preference would be simply to call them“schools”, but perhaps that is an idea whose time has notyet come.
It isimportant to raise the issue now, because for50 years oureducation debate has been too much hung up on the names that we giveschools. I do not believe that the concept of a grammar school is aprecise or accurate one, because some grammar schools are whollyselective state schools, some are non-selective state schools, and someare private schools that select to a greater or lesser degree byability and by the size of the parents’ chequebook. The term “grammar school”is not helpful, nor is the term “comprehensive school”,which embraces an enormous range of schools with an enormous diversityof intake. We need to get away from the traditional framework ofdivisions between selection and non-selection, and between the controland running of schools by LEAs and a system of free-standingindependentschools.