United Kingdom: Education secretary Damian Hinds rules out creating new grammars but says he wants existing schools to expand

United Kingdom/February 20, 2018/By: Nicola Bartlett/ Source: https://www.mirror.co.uk

Theresa May pledged to increase the number of selective schools ahead of the election but had to drop the promise after failing to win a majority.

Education secretary Damian Hinds has ruled out creating new grammar schools but he does want existing selective schools to expand.

The new education chief said that he would that he would enthusiastically back the expansion of England’s existing 163 Grammar schools.

Theresa May pledged to increase the number of grammar schools when she became prime minister and set aside money in her first budget.

But after her disastrous election result she no longer had the numbers in parliament to pass new legislation and the pledge was quietly dropped from the Queen’s speech.

Mr Hinds, who himself attended a Roman Catholic Grammar school has previously written about his support for expanding the selective sector and there were reports that the new education review would contain such a policy.

But today the new education chief ruled that out.

However Mr Hinds did reassert his commitment for the expansion of existing grammar schools which would not require a change in the law.

Asked if the government would be creating new Grammars, he said: «That is not what we’re doing we’re talking about being able to expand existing grammar schools.»

Instead he said: “Well what we are looking at is about the existing grammar schools and schools in general where there’s demand from parents and they’re providing a good education and there’s a need in the area can expand to take on more pupils.»

It is not only a turnaround for the PM, but also a change from Mr Hinds’s own views which he clearly set out in 2014.

In a chapter of a book Access all Areas , Mr Hinds said: “There is no appetite in the country for a wholesale return to academic selection at 11, for good reasons, but why not have at least one unashamedly academically elite state school in each county or major conurbation?”

Mr Hinds’s predecessor Justine Greening was publicly supportive of the prime minister’s grammar schools policy, but was known to be privately unenthusiastic – one of the reasons given for Mrs May’s decision to sack her from the education brief.

Source:

https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/politics/education-secretary-damian-hinds-rules-12045982