Good story in the Belfast Telegraph demonstrating how far a child’s chance of getting into a grammar school is determined by geography. The story concentrates on the fact that in some schools in places like Belfast, only children with the top grade were accepted. While in other grammar schools, children from every grade were accepted.
What the story doesn’t do, however, is link the question of geography to class, which remains the main determinant of getting access to a grammar school education. That is the real lottery here.
October 11, 2010 at 1:37 pm
Grades prove the role of class in affecting academic achievement. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-northern-ireland-11509937 Save the Children might think more about the structural change needed in NI to increase access to education, and improve results. Given the cuts about to be made across public services and the 11+ farce I suspect this recommendation will get forgotten pretty quickly.