Grammar Schools

 

In 1958, both my wife and I went to very good grammar schools in North London. Incidentally, Simon Mayo’s father taught me geography.

We both had a superb education and it enabled both of us to go on to University at Liverpool, where we met, despite living only two miles apart in London. As neither of us came from particularly rich families, we got full grants at University and have since gone on to be relative successes in engineering and the law.

But.

I don’t believe that grammar schools are the solutions to today’s problems.

What is needed is large numbers of dedicated teachers, who give us the same strong grounding that we got all those years ago. We also need to replace a system that sinks many heavily in debt when they leave University.

I doubt that neither my wife nor myself could have afforded to have gone to University in today’s climate.

The system created mainly by Blair/Brown that we have today needs to be changed drastically, if we are to get a more varied and better workforce.