There is something phenomenally depressing about the relish with which the Tories are burying grammar schools. Here are the most effective implements of social mobility this country has ever had—by 1969 they had pushed Oxford’s intake from the state sector up to 62 percent, far higher than today’s 55 percent which is achieved in party by positive discrimination—and the Tories want to run a million miles from them on the grounds of political expediency.
David Willetts sounds far from convincing when he says, “We must break free from the belief that academic selection is any longer the way to transform the life chances of bright poor kids.”
The gap in quality between grammars and the rest of the state sector is illustrated by the fact that 98.5
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