Kelly denies return to selection
Education secretary Ruth Kelly has today defended plans to give schools more independence as she attempts to avert a rebellion over education reform.
She is making a presentation to the cabinet this morning about the plans set out in the education white paper earlier this autumn, and will address a meeting of head teachers in London later today to explain why more change is needed.
“What I have got to do is convince them that these are reforms that are rooted in Labour values of justice and equality of opportunity and that they are necessary to drive up standards in the most disadvantaged areas,” she told Today.
Under the plans, schools would be given the freedom to run themselves and expand where necessary, leaving local authorities playing a more strategic role in local education. Parents would also be given a greater role, while schools would be encouraged to specialize.
The Tories have argued that the plans are a return to their policy of grant-maintained schools, which Labour scrapped when they came to power in 1997, leading to fears among many Labour MPs that the new freedoms would see a return to selection.
However, this morning Ms Kelly rejected this suggestion, giving an “absolute guarantee that this isn’t about returning to selection”.
She said that a “tiny” number of schools would continue to interview children prior to admissions, giving the example of a Catholic school which aimed to determine commitment to the faith, but insisted: “We have not changed the situation on admission at all.”
She continued: “What may happen and what we want to happen is that more schools may become self-governing so that they have the freedoms that are already there for self-governing foundation schools.
“They could decide if they became a music specialist college, for example, that they want to take ten per cent of children by aptitude and we allow the selection by aptitude. We allow the selection by aptitude up to ten per cent.”
