UK public support selective schools, says think tank

LONDON, Jan 3 (Reuters) A majority of the public support greater selection for 11-16 year old pupils and are in favour of schools setting their own admissions policy, according to a poll conducted for the Centre for Policy Studies (CPS).

The think tank, co-founded by Margaret Thatcher, said in a report today the findings showed the political consensus against academic selection was out of touch with public opinion.

Lord Blackwell, CPS chairman and a former head of policy for Conservative prime minister John Major, said all children would benefit from a selective education system.

He said research showed that able children from poorer backgrounds would particularly benefit from academic selection.

Prime Minister Tony Blair has ruled out any extension to selection by ability, although 164 selective grammar schools have been allowed to remain in England.

The government's Education Act imposes strict rules over school admissions. The opposition Conservatives have also said they would not reintroduce academic selection.

The CPS survey of 1,000 adults found that 76 per cent believed that more academic children could maximise their potential at secondary school through streaming or by going to selective schools.

If found that 51 per cent were in favour of letting schools set their own admissions rules.

Some 39 per cent of those asked said they would choose a selective school for their own child, although the majority -- 58 percent -- would opt for a mixed-ability school.

''While some comprehensives deliver excellent results, the wholesale shift towards non-selective schooling has not delivered the improvements in education standards or social equality that it was suggested would result,'' Blackwell said in the report.

He said the abolition of most selective state schools had increased, rather than reduced social divisions.

Wealthier parents had driven up property prices in the catchment areas of high-performing, middle-class comprehensives, or had opted out altogether into private education.

By contrast, able children from poorer families had been stranded in local schools with low aspirations and low achievements, Blackwell said.

Research last year from Bristol University had shown that the minority of able poor children who do go to grammar schools do ''exceptionally well'', he added.

Blackwell said state schools should be allowed to become fully selective, with those achieving high enough standards to be awarded ''academic school'' status -- in effect becoming new grammar schools.

But he said it should be voluntary for parents to enter their children for a selective school and there should be no return to a compulsory 11-plus exam at the end of primary schooling.

REUTERS SP HS1039