Rejecting selection- why the 11 plus must be abolished

by Fiona Millar

End the 11 plus. It is not a new idea but it should shoot straight into the manifestos of all the mainstream political parties.

Why?

Because they all claim it doesn’t work.

Because we are in an era where affluent parents think nothing of shelling out between £3000 and £5000 to coach their children to pass the test.

Because the chances of a poor child getting into a grammar school are virtually nonexistent – they take on average 1- 2% of children on free school meals.

And above all because the children who fail the test, poor but also often with special needs, frequently they end up in secondary modern schools, , many of which do a heroic job but still struggle with an unbalanced intake of children who feel the system has rejected them.

Read the voices of head teachers in selective areas, in the new pamphlet from Comprehensive Future ‘Ending Rejection at 11 plus’, talking about how this outdated, socially unjust system of segregating children affects their pupils.

They talk of children set against their friends, children who become so stressed over taking the test that they stop sleeping, start to wet the bed, often break down in tears and throw up over their test papers and sometimes become school phobic. Those that fail become passive and disillusioned. Sometimes their battered self esteem never recovers.

One secondary modern head from fully selective Kent explained:

“Children arrive here in year 7 – some have taken and failed the 11 plus, and they have markedly depressed self-perception as a result. A lot of pastoral support is needed to turn this around, and for some it is a life-long scar.

“Self perception of children in selective areas who either did not take the 11 plus or who failed it remains depressed for their whole educational career, regardless of their achievement subsequently.”

The most coherent and passionate argument against a widespread return to selection in recent years came not (disappointingly) from a Labour front bencher, but from Tory MP David Willetts, now shadow universities spokesman, who told the CBI in 2007.

“We must break free from the belief that academic selection is any longer the way to transform the life chances of bright poor kids. This is a widespread belief but we just have to recognise that there is overwhelming evidence that such academic selection entrenches advantage, it does not spread it.”

Only UKIP and the BNP now officially promote a return to selective education as party policy.

So with overt support for a return to an 11 plus test now limited to fringe extremist parties, why does it still continue in a quarter of all education authorities?

The answer is that most politicians, committed to raising the aspirations of the poorest pupils, have answered the ‘why?’ question but are still struggling with ‘how?’

We have a response to that. Our pamphlet doesn’t just re-state the arguments against academic rejection; it contains a practical solution to of how rejection at eleven could be ended within ten years of a new government.

No ‘good schools’ would be destroyed in a process that would entail minimal cost or disruption to existing pupils. Read the pamphlet at www.comprehensivefuture.org.uk to see how it can be done.

It’s a blueprint for a new government. All we need now is political courage.

‘Ending Rejection at 11 plus’ is published by Comprehensive Future.