Theresa May’s grammar school plans provoke a mixed reaction

Theresa May has told Tory MPs she won’t ‘turn back the clock’ on grammar schools. But she also didn’t rule out some expansion in the system of selective schools. How those two thoughts reconcile with each together will become clearer when the Government reveals its plans for school reform soon (this being Theresa May, we won’t be expecting a running commentary). Yet even the scant details which have emerged so far have provoked a predictably mixed reaction. Shadow Education Secretary Angela Rayner said the plans were ‘shambolic’. You can listen to her criticism here:

And Alan Milburn, who chairs the government’s social mobility commission, is perhaps the most outspoken voice this morning. In the Guardian, he says that these plans would be ‘disastrous’. The former Labour cabinet minister goes on to say that increasing the number of grammar schools risks creating an ‘us and them divide’. He says:

‘This is not selection educationally, it is selection socially.