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Education and Skills Bill

I agree absolutely. When Lord Rooker made that statement in the other place in introducing legislation to end grammar schools and the 11-plus in Northern Ireland, he went on to say:"““The Government are committed to ending academic selection in Northern Ireland and to a new system that involves parents choosing schools rather than schools selecting pupils.””—[Official Report, House of Lords, 10 July 2006; Vol. 684, c. 544.]" I am at a loss to understand why that same principle should not apply in England, if it is good enough to apply in Northern Ireland, and that is the Government's view. A former Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, the right hon. Member for Neath (Mr. Hain), told the Labour party's Manchester conference on 28 September 2006:"““We are reforming Northern Ireland's antiquated, unfair schools system which forced every child aged 11 to sit a test to determine their future; a test which opened a door to opportunities for a few, but closed those life chances off from too many. I've just taken through legislation to not only scrap the 11-plus but to abolish academic selection completely across Northern Ireland.””" I ask again, if that is good enough for Northern Ireland—or any other party of the UK—why is it not good enough for England? After all, that was a member of the same Government speaking. Another Labour Member said in a Commons debate on the same order that the Government were committed to ending selection, because they believe it disadvantages those individuals who are not selected. If the Government believe that in Northern Ireland, why do they not believe it in England—in Kent, Lincolnshire and elsewhere? The Conservative party had a far-sighted shadow Education Secretary, who believed in an evidence-based research policy. He researched deeply into the subject and made an excellent speech last year based on that research. The speech was delivered to the CBI, and in it, the hon. Member for Havant (Mr. Willetts) said:"““We must break free from the belief that academic selection is any longer the way to transform the life chances of bright, poor kids.””" Not that I believe that it ever was. One of the seminal works on the topic, published in the 1950s, ““Education and the Working Class”” by Brian Jackson and Dennis Marsden, studied every child in Huddersfield in one year who was going to grammar school. They pinpointed on the map exactly which streets the children came from, and found that whole swathes of the poor areas of town sent almost nobody to grammar school. That belief was therefore revealed as a myth 50 years ago, and it was a central part of teaching when I was at university. I do not know why there is still this myth that selection is the ladder up for the poor. The hon. Member for Havant went on to say that the idea that selection transforms the life chances of bright, poor kids"““is a widespread belief but we just have to recognise that there is overwhelming evidence that such academic selection entrenches advantage, it does not spread it.””" He was so far-sighted, so visionary, so much based in the realities of research and policy-based evidence, that he got sacked and replaced.