GRAMMAR SCHOOLS - KEYS TO SOCIAL MOBILITY.

Organisations called the 'Sutton Trust' and 'Social Mobility Commission' have produced a report, no doubt at considerable cost, which is claimed to demonstrate how elitist modern Britain is. 

This report, a complete waste of time and money, apparently tells us that the majority of senior professional jobs in our society are filled by people who have been privately educated and / or have attended either Oxford or Cambridge University. Why is this either wrong or surprising ?

The people who are successful in rising to the top are almost always going to be those who have received the best education; this inevitably means those whose parents are able to pay for private schooling, those whose abilities are such as to enable them to gain scholarships to such schools or those who, one way or another, gain admittance to the best universities. Of course, there are exceptions but these are few and far between, especially so since the almost universal destruction of grammar schools and the advent of the ubiquitous, and dumbed down, comprehensive system.

Grammar schools gave children from all backgrounds an opportunity that is now largely denied to them. Yes, it wasn't perfect but it was far better than what we have now, with academic subjects almost seen as being secondary to all manner of social indoctrination. When I was at my secondary school we took chemistry, physics and biology, now it's just a nebulous 'Science'; we had to learn French and either Latin or Greek, followed by choices of Spanish, German and, later, Russian. We were proud of our school and looked forward to the day when our own names might be written on the honours board. Today, such attitudes are derided as being elitist and unacceptable.

If the report's authors really want to bring about change, then they must surely recommend the reintroduction of grammar schools or something very similar; to continue to pretend that the comprehensive "one size fits all" philosophy is the right way to proceed is folly of the highest order. This is something that our next Prime Minister could and should take on board, but will they have the guts to go against the perceived, and horribly misguided, wisdom of the last 50 years ?

Jeremy certainly won't, but might Boris ?