Are grammar schools the answer?

As a new debate thankfully begins regarding the growing gulf in social mobility between the haves and the have nots, it seems the right time to revisit the advantages of the grammar school system.

Under the current system, bright children in state schools are disadvantaged in so many ways. In the first instance, the standard of education is inferior which perhaps explains why privately educated children have to pay for the privilege. Added to this is their preclusion from so many good courses not because they're not good enough but because they just don't know how to play the game. Their counterparts get all the requisite advice and coaching because they have paid for the privilege. That is not fair in anyone's book.

The opposition to a return to the grammar school system is steeped in socialist dogma. Regrettably for those children smart enough but too poor to afford a private education, the opposition centres around reservations relating to the steaming of children with an 11 plus examination. Heaven forbid, we can't have some children being more academically gifted than others. In an era where every child must have a prize, it is simply too painful for some to acknowledge difference. Difference not superiority. This is where people allow the debate to become rather muddled.

It is our difference which makes us all unique. Some can run fast. Some can paint. Some can make music. Some can understand physics and so it goes on. All the grammar school system did was to allow children to fully recognise their academic potential. The only winner was the country because University places were being selected from the whole pool rather than the one with the money funding it. As for those who didn't make the grade for grammar school, they were the ones who took on apprenticeships and jobs designed for school leavers. That was a good thing but has painted as being somehow discriminatory. What it do was to recognise and nurture their talents. That was it's biggest crime.

I went to my local Comprehensive for a year and then went to a boarding grammar school for the rest of my education. It remains the biggest step up in education which I have witnessed. The step up from John Moores University to Medical School has been quite gradual by comparison. The children at grammar school were miles ahead of me academically and I had only missed the first year! In truth, I spent the next six years catching them up such was the gulf between comprehensive and grammar school education. Granted, such a policy won't go down with the socialist lobby groups but for the future chances of our country, I don't think there's much to think about.

For the record, the cabinet of John Major had more privately educated members than the current Coalition cabinet. John Major is righ to highlight the lack of social mobility but suggests nothing to address it. Might I suggest a return to the 11 plus and 13 plus examinations. This would be a big step towards equality if they are really serious about it.