Grammar Schools - UKIP vs the Tories

Nigel Farage and David Willetts go head to head on Sunday AM about the new Tory policy on education and Grammar schools and the UKIP alternative

Category:

News & Politics

Tags:

• Grammar
• Schools
• UKIP
• Tory
• Labour
• conservative
• David
• Cameron
• Gordon
• Brown
• education

[Ul3ter4ever]

Nigel Farage is one of the very few people I would like to see running this country. He talks what every other politician does not COMMON SENSE! It is just a pleasure to listen to the best politician of our time!

[danny88101]

Farage is (as usual) correct. I'm working class and thank God for my Grammar School education. The Etonians just don't like the fact that we get to our schools through ability rather than money.

[hoplite46]

sound is  poor

[will34uk]

This is so true! There are kids who arnt academic and there are some who are; they should be separate.

[Myndir]

@geoffart There's clearly a solution to that problem. The Germans have got it right: provide different kinds of education with respected qualifications. Grammar schools + good technical schools = solution.

Selection shouldn't be about writing people off, but recognising that all children are different and have different skills. That may be unacceptable to some, but it's one reason why our economy is in the pits and why it's so much harder for people from modest backgrounds to make it big today.

[Myndir]

@PureJockPureBrit I had the same problem. There were only 4 Advanced Higher classes in my high school and it wasn't technically possible to get the 3/4 + Advanced Highers necessary for Oxbridge, so even those of us who got all A's at Higher couldn't go to Oxbridge.

I would have loved to learn fluent modern languages and Latin, but that requires disciplined classes and that's impossible when teachers are forced to teach uninterested people who'd rather be doing technical/vocational learning.

[Myndir]

@danny88101 Yep. The "big three" have created a system in which the only kind of selection that is allowed is on the basis of wealth. And they call this a more fair system!

There were flaws in the Tripartite system (disproportional funding; the lack of prestigious technical/vocational qualifications for the junior secondaries/secondary moderns etc.) but these could have been reformed without ruining the entire education system.

I REALLY like UKIP on this policy.

[Fleshious]

Bring back grammar schools.

[Gladiator12499]

In my view grammar schools should be introduced again. I myself went to one (a private grammar school) but before i went to a primary (state) school. I knew people who if grammar schools were still up and running, would have been able to go to one. They were equally as intelligent as me yet the only reason they could not go to one was because the only grammar schools in the area were private.

[Tracywithafacey]

The tories are too tame and unsure of themselves nowadays, remember the days where the difference between tories and labour was huge, Thatcher vs the labour left. Nowadays, they are too similar, i am still tory, but where is your backbone? Where is the grass roots conservative thought?

[PureJockPureBrit]

Bloody hell I would have LOVED the chance to go to a grammer school! I was one of 9% of people in my high school to achieve 5 or more Scottish Highers. I always ask myself that if my parents had sent me to a better school, would I have been capable of getting better grades to get into a better University? I suppose so. Effectively, introducing grammer schools would promote equality, for those in gash schools, like me, with good grades would get a better chance to go to a better university.

[geoffart]

My view is we need more personalised help, especially in subjects like maths and science. Teacher can not always spot the ones who get stuck (and haven't got time to really help them); they need one-to-one. That either means smaller class sizes, or you get more teaching assistants that have knowledge of the subject matter and pay them a small amount. Uni students would be a good choice.