§ 11.4 a.m.
§ Mr. Christopher Mayhew (Woolwich, East)I wish to raise the refusal of the Minister of Education to agree to the transfer of Eltham Hill School to form part of the Kidbrooke Comprehensive School, and to give her reasons for a very extraordinary last-minute decision, which has caused dismay and controversy in the area and throughout the educational world.
Whether one supports the general case for comprehensive schools or not, I should have thought that the experiment at Kidbrooke had now got to the stage where everyone would want it to succeed. If I were opposed to comprehensive schools I should want this experiment to 1600 have a fair chance so that if it failed I could say, "That shows that the comprehensive principle is wrong." Instead, the Minister by her action has certainly made it much more difficult to use Kidbrooke School, whatever other effect she may have had, as what we hoped the school would be, a fair test of a most courageous pioneering idea in education.
I hope that the Minister will regard this issue as one vitally concerning the welfare of the school children in the area.
§ 11.5 a.m.