The new schools minister has said he “would hope” there will be legislation brought forward before the next general election to lift the ban on new grammar schools.
Speaking on a panel at the Conservative Party Conference today, Jonathan Gullis, MP for Stoke-on-Trent North, said he did not know if legislation would be brought forward in this Parliament but that his views on selective education were “very much on the record”.
The debate about opening new grammar schools has been revived again in the past month, after Liz Truss became prime minister.
Ms Truss has strongly expressed support for new grammar schools, while the education secretary, Kit Malthouse, said recently in an interview with The Yorkshire Post that the prime minister has asked him to look at areas that want selective schools.
Lifting the ban on opening new grammar schools
A ban on opening new selective institutions has been in place for more than 20 years. Asked today if legislation reversing this would be brought forward in this Parliament, Mr Gullis said that no date had been set regarding any potential legislation to lift the ban.
“Will it be this parliamentary session? The honest answer is I don’t know at this time,” he added.
“The second question is: will we look to do it? I think the prime minister made her case very clear in the leadership contest; the secretary of state has followed this up.
“I would hope that there will be - before the next election - legislation brought forward to lift that ban”.
The opening of new grammar schools has proved to be a controversial policy in the education sector.
Research by think tank the Education Policy Institute (EPI) found that grammar schools had no overall impact on attainment, either positive or negative, and researchers “did not find a significant positive impact” on social mobility.
At the panel event, run jointly by the Association of School and College Leaders and the EPI, Mr Gullis also said he was a “huge believer” in the academies programme and that this would be a driver for “real change”.
He said the Department for Education remained “absolutely committed” to achieving the targets set for academisation, and that the sector would see in the “coming weeks” what was happening with the Schools Bill.
He also described early years as “absolutely critical”, and said he would be “championing” the importance of investing in our early years sector.
Earlier this year, when Nadhim Zahawi was education secretary, the government set the target of having all schools in or moving towards being in a multi-academy trust by 2030.
