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DUP's Wilson backs Robinson on Schools
Last week EU carried a story called "Grammar Schools Good for Social Mobility", in which we reported on East Antrim MLA Ken Robinson (UUP) highlighting LSE findings that Grammar Schools benefit working class pupils. Yesterday's Newsletter speaks of Sammy Wilson, DUP MP for East Antrim welcoming the same LSE report.
Follow up:
Wilson had this to say:
A recent report by the London School of Economics on the connection between selective education and social mobility confirms what the DUP has always maintained and what figures for university entry demonstrate. Namely, that a system based on merit advantages those who come from less well-off backgrounds."
and
"A move from academic selection to selection based on social and economic factors will always place gifted working-class children at a disadvantage."
Both the DUP and UUP oppose the Costello Report's recommendation to scrap the 11-plus transfer system, which offers pupils grammar school places based on ability.
Wilson went on to cite studies in England which have shown that abolishing grammar schools and introducing comprehensive education has "massively reduced" the number of working-class children gaining university places. Why then are Martin McGuinness and Sinn Fein, those wonderful battlers for (Catholic) working-class betterment, want to see the system abolished in favour of one where the richer the pupil is the better chance they have?
Do we really want to see the same disaster in Northern Ireland that happened to England when some misguided left-wing do-gooder abolished grammar schools? How do working class kids get on in life if they can't afford to go to the top schools? How on Earth can anyone justify this abhorrent move on the grounds of equality?
Find out more at Concerned Parents for Education and then have your say on the DENI consultation before it's too late.