Leading article: Grammar Schools and social mobility

Nostalgia is ripe in British politics. It was evident in the vote to leave the European Union, as many saw it as a chance to reject modernity, globalisation and demographic change. It is evident, too, in the Convervative Party’s flirtation with reintroducing Grammar Schools, a policy with David Willet’s, the former Tory MP and higher education minister, has described as “bring-backery”.

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Part of the problem is the difficult in designing a selection system that does not favour those with sharp-elbowed parents. The Sutton Trust has found that grammar-school pupils are four times more likely to have come from a private prep school than be on free school meals. Just three percent of those at grammar schools receive free school meals, a sixth of the national average. Devising “tutor proof” entrance exams has proved impossible. Surveys suggest that almost half of all those who take the eleven-plus have received some private tuition.

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