Selective Schools and the Four Types of Silence
I’ve long felt that allowing some schools to choose which children they admit, based on the results of an intelligence test, is something of an elephant in the room. It’s clearly not right, but no-one seems to want to talk about it. So it was with great interest that I read John Bercow’s great ‘coming out’ in the Guardian last Saturday as an opponent of academic selection and supporter of comprehensive education. It's notable firstly because this is someone who has nothing to gain from taking this stand. As he himself points out, “vast swathes of the local electorate [are] pro-grammar schools, particularly my Conservative voters”. He will not endear himself to many people with this article, and will anger quite a few. But what struck me most is his frank astonishment at how little attention anyone was giving the matter. “In retrospect, it is extraordinary how very few representations I received against the selective system in my 22 years as an MP, given that only 25% of any cohort...