Working-class pupils are just as likely to get a degree after attending a comprehensive school as a grammar school – contradicting claims that bringing back grammars would improve social mobility.
Researchers at the Institute of Education and the University of Manchester analysed the education histories of more than 7,700 people in England and Wales whose lives are being followed by the 1970 British Cohort Study.
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Previous research has cast doubt on the role of grammar schools in boosting social mobility. A Sutton Trust report last year said grammar schools were monopolised by affluent pupils, and just 2.7 per cent of entrants to grammar schools were eligible for free school meals. In December, Ofsted chief Sir Michael Wilshaw claimed that grammar schools were “stuffed full” of middle-class children and had failed to improve social mobility.
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21 November 2014