Private school alumni dominate the country says Ukip’s Nigel Farage, so bringing back the grammar system would make things “fairer”. He tells Matt Frei: “What we’ve got now are a self-perpetuating rich”.Sign up for Snowmail, your daily preview of what is on Channel 4 News, sent straight to your inbox, here:
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18 Comments
Education is the right of EVERY child regardless of academic ability and back ground! The children most likely to suffer are those with special educational needs. EVERY child matters, EVERY child should have fair and equal access to education!
Only one thing I seem to Agree with Farage with (whatever his actual motivation is). Grammar schools definitely should be expanded into the urban areas, with selective exams. It is a potential pathway for Social mobility for the poor and lower classes. Nothing will be 100 percent fair, but it is better than the alternative. I am Liberal Democrat leaning (so pro European integration).
Grammar schools have a reputation for having academically gifted children. Although this is true, it indirectly states that state schools aren't as bright and cannot produce kids who are that bright. This is clearly unfair those kids who weren't able to perform well on an exam that was enforced on them at such a young age. Some kids who join in the middle of their secondary education has to attend a state funded school as well. Establishment of many grammar schools might reinforce this pre conceived notion further.
need make more state schools more independent which would prevent closures leading kids from poverty back grounds going uneducated problem we have with state school education system too much power given to local authority who decide how funding should be spent and to weather to keep schools open if more power given to head teachers could be better allocated funding prevent closure of failing schools giving our children better chance at education tory s talk about goverment waste then need to start with this if got rid of LEA let head teachers decide how funding should be spent would save paying LEA meetings keep schools open prevent closures keep kids in schools state education system has been failing since thatchers and blairism goverments because give too much power to local authority decide which has led to inexperienced teachers put in wrong classrooms through cutbacks kids schools closing complelty leading to gangs on streets why be lot better went independent head teachers decided where should be spent when schools close kids are gonna end up on street since this goverment got in seen knife crime kids smoking crack because not educated due to amount of schools closing down across this country due to LEA making rediculas decisions to close them
Grammer schools can help poorer people get a better education but unfortunately due to the entry tests and the way the system works people who have more money can pay well trained tutors to help children from a better off background pass the entry exam and due to this poorer families dont get the opportunity to claim a place at a grammer school simply because they arent able to provide their children with the preparation which more wealthier families can offer to their children.
If you look at the link below and search up different grammer schools you can see that more often then not the percentage of free school meals is not higher then 8%.
https://www.locrating.com/school_catchment_areas.aspx?lat=53.7593363&lng=-2.6992717
I am for grammar schools, there just has to be something like at least 2 in a borough or something, so that the grammar schools still have a value to them. It’s also teaches kids lessons that working a bit harder goes a long way. I think the grammar schools are the perfect alternative to private schools
We need grammars AND non-grammars! We need different types of people in this world. If everyone went to the local comp, the smart people would be way ahead and quite frankly bored. Same goes for it the less bright people went to a top grammar school, they'd struggle and feel left behind.
Solution? Grammar schools and non-grammar schools. Thank you ladies and gentlemen and good night.
Why on earth is anyone arguing about the chance for a child to have a better education
I think that the grades and the opportunity business aren't the whole story. Our state schools claim to promote grades, while systematically blending cohorts and then trying to collect the cream of the crop through the use of sets; which were in my experience terribly corrupt and not without the same issue of demotivated problem children taking shits in class. The pace of your education should be determined not by your parents, or choice of school, but by your own intelligence and ability. Everyone should go to a grammar school – but not all grammar schools need to be as demanding of one's brain. Have all the morons in one school, and those who are still morons but motivated in another, those with talent in a third, and those with talent and motivation in a fourth.
And a fifth grammar school for those special few who are so bad at maths to think that a handful of schools could serve the entire country.
Bright kids are looked down at local school by friends and the bunch will bring down the bright kids down to their level, Do not think from only one angle .. there are other sides to it too. Use brains and definitely brighter kids need their space too, you cant put tiger in a small fish bowl qnd expect lion to become a fish. Brighter kids deserve good thing. Nothing about elite etc. Britain would not have immigration problems if they made schools more stricter and putting values in the mind of young kids. Too late
eleven is t oo young todecide a child'#s future.
why not do w hat theydo in germany? they have a FOURTEEN PLUS examination. and all the students are educated to the best of their best abiliity.
in council estates, any form of education is regarded with suspicion by most of the people who live there.
you see, most of these people are semi-illiterate anyway.
and they pass it onto their children.
who ever heard of an illiterate middle class people?
I find modern Britain, its decisions and thoughts, quite disturbing. Grammar schools are a thing of the past. The modern education model works. This is just another prompt to return to the 50s in attitudes. Things were awful in the 50s…nostalgia is a funny thing..
I go to a grammar school and I see it like this: If you do not work hard enough to pass the eleven plus, maybe you don't deserve to be in a grammar school. If children who should be in grammar schools are put in regular schools, they will be repressed and often bullied because of they're brains. You cannot help the class you're born into, but with grammar schools you have the opportunity to change it.
You are quite right, I was working class and made it to grammar school, and I think everyone should have that chance.
Typical liberal view: help the minority (the above-average students), but not the majority who you are supposed to represent.
Libertarian, liberal, same world view, slightly different approach.
"Liked" for others to view.
UKIP's Nigel Farage says a privately-educated elite are taking over the UK, and grammar schools are one way to Britain things fairer. Himself privately-educated, Farage has gone on the attack over the Tories' education policies