When you consider the list of urgent priorities facing this government, it is hard for anyone to agree that reintroducing grammar schools is one of them. Which is why almost nobody has. Now that May has got this off her chest we can only hope, once again, that she will get on with her day job.
For what it is worth, eleven is completely the wrong age to make any kind of selection based on ability. It is arbitrary and based on the medieval notion that children are born either ‘thick’ or ‘bright’. The private sector has something to teach here. It has evolved over centuries and makes the academic selection at 13+. That is the point at which the choice of public school based on marks achieved in the common entrance exam. Some schools demand very high attainment while others are more relaxed. Therefore any form of selection within the state system if it has to happen at all (and this blog believes it should be by stream within the school not by school) should take place then. And not just in an academic sense. This is when we should identify the future engineers, computer scientists, construction engineers, technical specialists and so on. The future of the economy depends on re-energizing these critical vocations. We have enough lawyers, bankers and estate agents.