A West Midlands MP is backing the Government’s controversial plans to create more grammar schools. Julian Knight, Tory MP for Solihull, said the current system favours the rich who are able to buy homes near grammar schools and other top performing schools and hence give their children an unfair advantage.
The plans were revealed by a photographer who caught pages detailing the plans in a picture he took of a civil servant belonging to the Dept of Education.
According to Knight:
“Our current, comprehensive system is superficially fair but masks huge inequalities, and creates a postcode lottery which actually creates, via house prices, de facto fees to get into the best schools.
“Middle-class parents are also much better placed to make up any shortcomings in their child’s education with homework support and tuition. The deck is unfairly stacked against the disadvantaged.
“By contrast, for decades grammars provided a ladder which poor but able children could climb, giving them the opportunity to fulfil their potential and build a better life.”
