Grammars are the ‘wrong route’ to social equality, NAHT warns

The government is ‘choosing the wrong route towards social equality’ with its plans to reintroduce grammar schools in England, according to the National Association of Head Teachers (NAHT).

Russell Hobby, general secretary of the NAHT, has warned that the proposed grammar school plans are ‘a risky distraction from the real issues in education’.

He said that the idea of bringing selectivity back into England’s education system was ‘the least likely path to take us towards a country that works for everyone’ and suggested that the government should instead put its focus into increasing funding and recruiting more high quality teachers if they wanted to improve educational outcomes.

Hobby said: “To make a real difference to a child’s life, it is too late to wait until they reach eleven. The government’s focus should be on investment in the thousands of early years providers in England, not fiddling with 160 grammar schools to appease a couple of dozen back-benchers.

“Education as a whole is facing an eight per cent cut in funding. A quarter of all new teachers quit after three years. And there is no central strategy to guarantee enough school places. The government lacks credibility to refer to an ‘ambitious package of education reforms’, without announcing any measures to address these issues.

“All Education professionals are dedicated to high standards, but that must be for every child not just a select few.”