New Education Secretary clears way for new generation of grammar schools
Tony Blair had banned new grammars opening in 1998
EDUCATION Secretary Justine Greening has paved the way for a new generation of grammar schools.
Her major boost for parents yesterday came just three days after she took office.
She said she was “open-minded” about a return to selection in State schools. Ex-Labour PM Tony Blair passed laws in 1998 to ban any new grammars from opening.
It has left the remaining 163 hugely over-subscribed as parents seek the best possible education for bright kids.
But new PM Theresa May is a grammar school girl and The Sun on Sunday reported yesterday she was ready to scrap the ban.
Mrs May has previously championed a new wave of the schools to boost social mobility. Her top policy aide Nick Timothy also thinks parents should have the right to send their children to selective schools.
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Ms Greening, the first Education Secretary to have attended a comprehensive, signalled overturning the ban would not mean a return to 11-plus entrance exams.
But she hinted grammars could be offered alongside academies, free schools and comprehensives. She told the BBC’s Andrew Marr Show the education landscape “has actually changed quite dramatically”.
She added: “So I think we need to be prepared to be open-minded.”
Many Tories have long called for the return of grammars.
MP Graham Brady, who quit as a shadow minister in 2007 when David Cameron refused to support new grammars, urged Mrs May and Ms Greening to press ahead.
He said: “I hope the new Government will seek an opportunity to repeal this silly ban as soon as possible.”