ST. MARYLEBONE GRAMMAR SCHOOL (Hansard, 2 February 1977)

§ Mr. Baker

I beg to ask leave to move the Adjournment of the House, under Standing Order No. 9, for the purpose of discussing a specific and important matter that should have urgent consideration; namely, the use of her powers by the Secretary of State for Education and Science to cease to maintain St. Marylebone Grammar School". This is the first occasion on which I have asked leave to move the Adjournment of the House under Standing Order No. 9. It would be quite wrong for any Member to seek to use this procedure for a narrow constituency point, but the issues involved in this case go far wider than its circumstances. What is at issue is the use by a Minister of her powers, which have hitherto been used for administrative purposes only, to 562 attain a political objective, the attainment of which has been denied by the courts. I shall not seek to argue the merits of the case, but the circumstances are important.

On Monday evening, the Secretary of State for Education and Science decided to cease to maintain St. Marylebone Grammar School. That means that the school will slowly die. It will not be able to pay salaries, and there will not be another intake of boys. This follows a proposal by the Inner London Education Authority that the school should cease.

There is a long history here with which I shall not bore the House. Suffice it to say that ILEA has been trying to destroy the school for a long time. Six months ago ILEA proposed that St. Marylebone Grammar School should merge with another school in my constituency which has considerable social and educational problems. The parents took ILEA to court and won an injunction delaying it from proceeding with the merger. ILEA then had a choice. It could have taken that injunction, and the decisions surrounding it, to a higher court, and ultimately to the Court of Appeal or even to the House of Lords, but it decided not to do so and asked the Secretary of State to use her powers under the 1944 Education Act to cease to maintain St. Marylebone Grammar School.

These powers are in the Act for administrative purposes only. They have been used in the past, for example, when a central city school has wished to move with consent to the country. Then the Secretary of State ceases to maintain. The powers have been used when a school wished to go independent. Some schools in London now wish to go independent and the Secretary of State will cease to maintain them. This is not the wish of the parents of St. Marylebone Grammar School. They want to reorganise the school on mini-comprehensive lines.

The powers have been used when the population has declined in an area and there is no need for the school. This is not the case with St. Marylebone Grammar School. Indeed, the immediate area around the grammar school is the only area in Central London where the population is increasing because of the building of a huge council estate. The 563 powers have been used when there has been a lamentable educational failure by a school. This is not the case with St. Marylebone Grammar School, where last year 76 per cent. of the boys who took A levels passed, and all 33 boys who took science subjects at A level passed. This is just the sort of school which the Prime Minister and the Secretary of State for Education and Science want maintained and expanded. If young boys are to be encouraged to go into industry, this is the sort of school which provides the education for them to do so.

I believe that the Secretary of State has used these administrative powers to attain a political end, namely, the destruction of a fine school with a great scholastic tradition. She has refused requests for a public inquiry and has used her powers for a deplorable political act. Wide political and constitutional questions arise, in that she could use these powers anywhere in the country to achieve political objectives which the courts may well have denied.