Theresa May sets £50m budget to expand grammar schools

Prime Minister Theresa May on Friday announced that she has lifted the ban on selective schools in the UK and is working towards their expansion.

The ban on grammar schools was initially introduced by the Labour government under Tony Blair in 1998.

The controversial move is the Prime Minister’s first big policy announcement since she came to power.

According to May this shake up in the school system is aimed towards allowing academically gifted children to excel to their full potential even if they come from disadvantaged backgrounds.

Existing non-selective or comprehensive schools are also going to be given the right to become a grammar as long as they abide by quotas for children from low-income homes.

"The truth is that we already have selection in our school system - and it's selection by house price, selection by wealth. That is simply unfair. We are effectively saying to poorer and some of the most disadvantaged children in our country that they can't have the kind of education their richer counterparts can enjoy," May said in a speech in London.

Critics however argue that this meritocratic system would achieve the opposite by leading to further inequality.

Chair of the government’s social mobility commission Alan Milburn said the reintroduction of grammar schools would be a "disaster", arguing that pupils in existing grammar schools were four or five times more likely to have come from a private prep school than from the most disadvantaged backgrounds.

Labour's shadow education secretary Angela Rayner said: "By enshrining selection into our education system the prime minister is wilfully ignoring the overwhelming evidence that selection at 11 leads to a more unequal country."

The Economist argued that children from wealthier families also have an unfair advantage as they have the means to pay for extra tuition to prep for the entrance exams required to get into these schools.

This focus on creating more “good” schools can also lead to a drain on the best teachers from other types of schools. Researcher from Education Datalab Rebecca Allen attributes this as the reason for GCSE results being much higher at grammar schools.

Ofsted's chief inspector of schools, Sir Michael Wilshaw, said the idea that poor children would benefit from a return of grammar schools was "nonsense". He went on to say that the move will turn back the clock and slow down the progress made over the past 10 to 15 years.

Kevin Courtney, leader of the National Union of Teachers, said opening new grammars was a "regressive move and a distraction from the real problems" of funding pressures and teacher shortages.

Tim Farron, leader of the Liberal Democrats, said: "If the Conservatives care about our children's education they should reverse their cuts to school budgets. We need to improve all schools, not just let some become grammars.”