Sir Peter Lampl outlined Open Access and other Sutton Trust policies to improve social mobility, in The Times.

Many of those who govern us and make the decisions that affect our lives are drawn from a narrow talent pool. Nearly a third of new parliamentary candidates with winnable seats in May were privately educated, and the new House of Commons is unlikely be any more representative than the current parliament. At the same time, more than half of our top judges, medics, journalists and city bosses have enjoyed a similar education.

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Access to good schools, with their better exam results, dramatically improves your chances of going to a top university: those from a rich neighbourhood are nine times more likely to go to a top university than those from a poor one.

That’s why we need a real commitment to social mobility in the parties’ manifestos. There should be use of random allocation for urban schools, and more outreach and fairer admissions tests by grammar schools. Students need better subject and careers advice at school, to access good universities and apprenticeships. Schools should do more for their most able students, too, building on our Sutton Trust summer schools for sixth formers and programmes for able 12 to 16-year-olds.

All these measures can make a difference. But one reform could transform social mobility at the top: opening up the best independent day schools on the basis of ability rather than ability to pay.

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Abolishing the academic apartheid between independent and state schools is crucial if people are to succeed on merit rather than money. I hope the MPs elected in May — especially those who enjoyed a first-class education themselves — will embrace our practical proposals to open up top positions in Britain.

Read the full article here (£).

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