At just over half the intake, exactly the same proportion of people goes to Oxbridge from state schools now as did so in the days of the Secondary Moderns, which will always and by definition be most people's experience of selective secondary education.
It is laughable to suggest that in general the Britain of the 1950s was either a more mobile or, indeed, a better-educated society.
But anyway, there will never be a parliamentary majority for this, and in any case it would never work. How are grammar schools supposed to be magicked up?
Rather, this is how Theresa May is distracting her party from the absence of the slightest progress on Brexit.
As well as from the fact that she supports elected workers' representation (which would in practice mean trade union representation) on company boards, statutory restraints on pay differentials, and an inquiry into Orgreave, while having a Department for Industrial Strategy.
All four of those things either are going to happen, or they are already happening. Unlike grammar schools.
I see your game, you are trying to cast Owen Smith as Theresa May.
ReplyDeleteI've checked and you are right about Oxbridge. There are hardly any remaining grammar schools, so even if they sent everyone there, which they don't, that wouldn't come close to being 50% of the intake.
ReplyDeleteThey are as they have always been, heavily concentrated in middle class areas. "We are going to bring back ancient institutions" is funny enough but "We are going to bring back institutions where there never were any" is hilarious.
I have two young friends at Oxford now who are brothers, and their sister also went there. From my old comp, right here in County Durham. That is not untypical. In fact, I believe that it is correct to say that my old comp has sent someone to Oxbridge every year since it was founded, which was in 1966. Again, that seems to be quite normal. I am going through the 11-18 comps in County Durham, and they all send people to Oxbridge routinely. Sixth Form colleges, I honestly know less about. But I could find out.
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