Selective education can tackle inequality. Here’s how

You know the figures: seven per cent of children in the UK attend fee-paying schools but they win 42 per cent of Oxbridge places and 70 per cent of jobs in private equity banking; they also make up 30 per cent of places in the cabinet. This is a significant decrease from previous cabinets – 50 per cent of David Cameron’s, 70 per cent of Sir John Major’s and 90 per cent of Margaret Thatcher’s were privately educated – but it is still worryingly high.

Grammar schools are suggested by some as a solution, but they have a poor record of improving social mobility. Children with educated, comparatively wealthy parents are better placed to get over the hurdles of 11+ tests and catchment areas. This means clever children from poor homes are all too often frozen out. That’s the case against grammars. But it does not hold for selective education in general.