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Hattersley rebels over grammar schools

The former deputy leader of the Labour Party accused the government of adopting an "absurd" approach to the future of grammar schools in England.

In a House of Lords debate, Lord Hattersley claimed that the rules for local ballots on grammar schools had been made deliberately complex to deter parents from attempting to change their status.

The new rules, produced by the Department for Education and Employment, set out how parents can vote on turning grammar schools into comprehensives.

However Lord Hattersley said that the "government wants to introduce a ballot of such formidable complication that most education authorities - and the pro-comprehensive factions within them - would not initiate a ballot in the first place".

Despite his fears that the education secretary was contriving to block grammar closures, Lord Hattersley said that "people will run ballots and people will campaign for comprehensive education".

Lord Hattersley has been prominent in the campaign to turn the remaining grammar schools in England into comprehensives, recently describing the selective system as "educational apartheid".

There are 161 grammar schools in England, while all state secondary schools in Wales and Scotland are comprehensive. However in Northern Ireland the grammar school system has remained intact, with pupils taking 11-plus exams earlier this month.

Under the proposed rules, a vote will take place if 20% of parents sign a petition calling for a ballot on whether a grammar school should become comprehensive.

The parents entitled to vote will include those with children at primary schools which have sent more than five pupils to the grammar school in the past three years.

In areas where the grammar system remains - . Bexley, Buckinghamshire, Kent, Lincolnshire, Medway Towns, Slough, Southend, Sutton, Torbay and Trafford, amounting to about half the grammar schools - this will mean virtually all parents will be able to vote.

But campaigners against grammar schools say that in authorities where there are few grammars, it will mean that most parents will be excluded from ballots, creating a small electorate of parents more likely to be sympathetic to grammars.

The Campaign for State Education says in its latest newsletter to supporters: "If there is a ballot over changing the admission arrangements of the local grammar school to admit children of all abilities and then local parents find out they aren't allowed to vote, they are going to be very angry indeed, particularly if parents at a private school many miles away are getting a vote."

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Saying 'no' to selection (24 Oct 98 | Education)

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