David Blunkett, Minister of Education Reform, said Prince Charles made plain his disapproval of Labor’s decision to concentrate on comprehensive education. “I would explain that our policy was not to expand grammar schools, and he didn’t like that.
“He was very keen that we should go back to a different era where youngsters had what he would have seen as the opportunity to escape from their background, whereas I wanted to change their background.”
There are just 164 grammar schools left in England and 69 in Northern Ireland — down from just under 1,300 under the system’s peak in 1965. The law prevents any more from being built.
Mr Cameron, who was educated at Eton, led to a violent debate within the Conservative party seven years ago after ruling out an expansion of grammar schools, saying parents do not want their children “divided into sheep and goats at the age of 11”.
Instead, the Ministry of Education has sought to encourage the growth of academy schools, which are free to adopt traditional methods but are prevented from selecting pupils on grounds of academic ability.
But David Davis, a former leader of the Conservative party, said it was necessary to develop selective education and win back ambitious lower-middle and working-class people. “Social mobility in Britain today is the poorest it has been in living memory, and one of the main reasons for that is the absence of grammar schools. The raw truth is grammar schools are the best way to give bright youngsters from a poor background a chance,” Mr Davis added.
Chris McGovern, the chairman of the Campaign for Real Education which was set up in the wake of grammar school closures, said a promise by ministers to fund new selective schools would be “hugely popular” with a majority of parents.
Mr Blunkett said he “didn’t mind” the intervention. “If you are waiting to be the king of the United Kingdom … you genuinely have to engage with something or you’d go worried.”
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