The trend towards increased selection at 16 is a throwback to the grammar-school era – and the opposite of levelling up
A contradiction sits at the heart of the British education system, and most particularly the English one. This has been the case since most secondary schools in England switched from a selective system to a comprehensive one in the 1960s. The contradiction is that the mixed-ability principle was never extended to higher education, which continues to be highly stratified. Entry to a handful of elite institutions remains the ultimate prize. As schools policy sought to create a less divided society, in which people from different backgrounds were expected to mix, universities (and the policymakers overseeing them) have clung to hierarchies. Admissions data over decades has shown these to be social as well as intellectual, with the more affluent claiming a disproportionate share of places.
The development of a new cadre of super-selective state sixth forms, which the government has promised to accelerate as part of its levelling up strategy, is designed to address this. Comprehensives struggle to compete with the hothouse conditions of independent and grammar schools, some of which have links to Oxbridge dating back centuries. A few academically elite sixth forms have had striking successes.
