HC Deb 26 June 1996 vol 280 cc333-4
13. Mr. Mudie

To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Employment when she estimates there will be a grammar school in every town. [33210]

Mrs. Gillan

Grammar schools have a proud tradition of helping the most able children to achieve their full potential. We want to encourage the establishment of more of them, as part of a spectrum that allows parents to choose the schooling that best matches their children's abilities and needs. The measures in the White Paper, "Self-government for schools", that we published yesterday will make it easier for grammar schools to be set up wherever that is what parents and schools want.

Mr. Mudie

The Minister will be aware that the public response to the White Paper was that it is a sham, designed to fool the policy unit at No. 10 rather than being relevant to the needs of the majority of schoolchildren in Britain. If the Minister disagrees, and we are to take seriously the Government's proposal that there should be a grammar school in every town, will she say how many she expects there will be—first, before the general election and, secondly, before the millennium? Finally, let me raise a matter that was significant by its omission from yesterday's White Paper: how much new money has the Department been promised to create those new grammar schools?

Mrs. Gillan

The hon. Gentleman will have to read the White Paper again as he obviously does not understand it. The Government want to establish a range of schools to match children's varied talents, interests and needs. Grammar schools and other selective schools are an essential part of that range, but we are giving local communities the opportunity to decide whether they want a grammar school. I refer him to a recent survey commissioned by the Association of Teachers and Lecturers. It found that 54 per cent. of parents were in favour of a return to a fully selective education system. I would also draw his attention to headlines in newspapers such as, "Give us more grammar schools".

Mr. Hawkins

My hon. Friend will know that I have campaigned for the expansion of grammar schools for the past 23 years, ever since direct grant grammar schools such as the one that I was lucky enough to attend were destroyed by doctrinaire, narrow-minded socialist ideology. Does she agree that Labour's hypocrisy is especially shown by Opposition Front Benchers, who have so little faith in Labour local authorities such as the one that the hon. Member for Barking (Ms Hodge) used to lead that they do not send their children to schools in those authorities but take advantage of Conservative policies of choice and diversity?

Mrs. Gillan

I look no further than the Labour Front Bench to see the success of our education policies. The hon. Member for Peckham (Ms Harman) and the right hon. Member for Sedgefield (Mr. Blair) could give many other Labour Members a private tutorial.