13 January 2006
Teaching unions have reacted with scepticism to Conservative leader David Cameron's pledge that there would be no return to the 11-plus if his party won power.
Senior representatives of the profession immediately cast doubt on Cameron's promise, made in his first major policy speech on education on January 9, that he would not allow an extension of selection between schools in the state sector.
Instead, Cameron said a Tory government would introduce setting by ability for individual subjects in all schools to drive up standards.
But Steve Sinnott, general secretary of the National Union of Teachers, accused the Tories of making the pledge on 11-plus style selection as a strategy to 'conceal the potential for increased selection'.
He said: 'The existing facility for secondary schools to select up to 10 % of their intake by aptitude is a stalking horse for the Conservatives to return to selection by more subtle means than the 11-plus and without ever having to admit the move openly.'
Mary Bousted, general secretary of the Association of Teachers and Lecturers, was equally critical. 'He looks to outdated policies which retain privileges, and calls the professionalism of teachers who base their practice on knowledge of what works “claptrap”,' she said.
'That is why schools ache for a new curriculum and assessment system to engage all pupils, and for support to work together to maximise learners' opportunities.'
But Cameron said that setting made educational sense. 'Every parent knows that children do best when they are engaged at the right level of ability. So I want to see setting in every single school. Parents know it works. Teachers know it works.'
Cameron also used his speech to reverse the Tories' opposition to university tuition fees and to announce a review of the party's 'pupil passports' policy, under which parents would receive help towards the cost of private education.
PFjan2006
