Selecting a narrow education As New Labour cranks up its anti-
grammar school campaign, a teacher asks - why now? Could this be
the end for the country’s remaining grammar schools? At present
there are 164 grammar schools, concentrated mainly in Kent and
Yorkshire. Education secretary Charles Clarke has now given his
backing to a new Labour Party campaign that aims to see the end
of selection at age eleven once and for all. This will be the
first such campaign since New Labour came to power. Other recent
attempts to scrap the grammars focused on a parental ballot -
unfortunately for the government, the public just didn’t vote in
line with official opinion. Only a handful of schools took part
in a ballot and no grammar schools were actually closed. The
focus, and the debate Clarke wishes people to engage with this
time, is the impact of grammar schools upon educational
standards. His argument is that grammar schools depress
standards by creaming off the most able pupils. But how on earth
is it possible to blame