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My 2005 General Election campaign in Blaenau Gwent taught me many things. One experience I did not anticipate, however, was to be harangued by constituents about the absence of a grammar school in the valley. In what was then the safest Labour seat in Wales, I did not expect to be ‘button-holed’ about selective education. And it did not just happen once. On my many visits to markets throughout the constituency, I met people who were fed up with the lack of opportunity for their children and grandchildren. The general feeling could be summed up as being: “none of our kids have a chance now, with a grammar school at least some of them would have”.
Yesterday, David Frost, director general of the British Chambers of Commerce, accused the education system in this country of “creating two nations – of haves and have nots”. Speaking in the opening sessions of the Chamber’s annual conference in London, he reported that half of Britain’s youngsters were leaving school without five decent GCSEs. He emphasised the need to tackle the “national disgrace” of young people leaving education without decent qualifications. As part of this drive to raise standards, he called for the re-introduction of grammar schools, institutions he described as “the escape route for the working class in post-war Britain”.
In his speech, Mr Frost quoted recent figures showing that more than one million young people were not in work, education or training while one in five were facing a lifetime on government handouts, double the figure in Germany and France and still growing. I saw many young people in Blaenau Gwent whose futures were that bleak. With the arrival of many workers from Eastern Europe, often with better skills and an impressive work ethic, I fear for their future. As there are now over 600,000 people from Eastern Europe working in the UK, the development of an unskilled “underclass” cannot be far off.
Increasingly, ‘average’ families are making sacrifices to send their children to private schools. Middle-class disillusionment with local state education services is often illustrated by “postcode spikes” in property prices near respected schools. These parents understand that life can be tough and that school should be about preparing their children for the realities of adult life. Competitive sport, academic streaming and proper discipline are all important parts of an education system. For me though, the key attribute that a private school education provides is self-confidence; the belief that if one has talent and applies oneself that there is no limit to success in life. Grammar schools once provided the same ethos.
I am a product of a grammar school (pictured above), and have no doubt that it was that sound academic base that provided me with the opportunity to become a doctor. The school motto,‘Te digna sequere’ (Follow things that are worthy of you), summed up the educational approach within the school. I fear that if I had been at a comprehensive school, I would not have gone on to study medicine. It is not that I needed an ‘escape route’ per se, more that I, and people from my background, would not not have had the opportunity to progress in life without the benefit of a grammar school education.
Clearly, in an ideal world the educational needs of all children could be provided under the same roof. Sadly, none of us live in an ideal world. With increasing movement of people across continents, competition for work will only become more intense in the future. In the light of that, Mr Frost’s candid comments yesterday are to be welcomed. Going to school should be about nurturing and supporting talent whilst engendering a good work ethic. It should not be about political ideology.
