The darker side of the selective schooling system, where 75 per cent of children are labelled ‘failures’ and success depends more on family wealth than natural aptitude, has been exposed by a headteacher.
Phil Karnavas, principal of The Canterbury High School, a comprehensive rated ‘outstanding’ by Ofsted, said some of the 10 and 11-year-olds who sit the Kent Test will ‘fail’ after being put under immense pressure to pass.
The damage to their self-esteem could be profound, he said.
“It was this that led to a Kent County Council official remarking to me that some may see this as being pretty close to the emotional abuse of children,” he told Kent on Sunday.
“I am afraid that I cannot change my view that to some extent success in the [11-plus] test now depends in part upon a parent’s ability and willingness to pay for it.
“This is a difficult area. All parents want their children to do well and so I would not presume to say they are wrong.
“What I do say is it is wrong to place them in a position where they feel they have to make this choice.”
Mr Karnavas said he was not criticising grammar schools but the education system of selection, or what he calls “a system of rejection”, and the way selection is made.
There are 39 grammar schools across Kent and Medway and they are the only fully selective local authorities in the country.
“In such a system the perceived success of the few depends upon the actual failure of the many,” Mr Karnavas said.
“In Kent 75 per cent of children are labelled failures because they are not entered for the test; or, they are entered for the test and fail it; or, they fail at appeal.
“This must damage a young child’s self-esteem and confidence. In some cases this damage will linger a lifetime.”
Ian Johnston, principal of the Marlowe Academy in Ramsgate, said he would also like to see the selective system scrapped.
“I think it is completely ludicrous sitting the test at age 10 or 11,” he said. “The pressure and the expectations put on them is completely unwarranted.
“I’ve been in teaching for 28 years in comprehensive schools and for the life of me cannot get my head around this totally divisive system.
“I’m not sure it is even motivating or encouraging the most able to achieve as highly as they might.
“I know for a fact the issue those who fail face; the stigma of that but also the difficulties they face working in high schools.”
Mr Johnston said in his experience, grammar schools were trying to protect traditions and ways of working from the 1950s, which was not the best preparation for children entering a global economy and working with people from different backgrounds.
Mr Karnavas said a significant number of year seven pupils at the county’s grammar schools will have had a private education, private tuition or parents with the time and resources to coach their children.
He said these children were “not necessarily more able, just better prepared”.
“Regrettably, the testing system tends to reward parental affluence as well as, if not more than, a child’s innate ability,” he said.
“It is not up for argument: grammar schools serve a relatively privileged socio-economic group.
“Looked-after children, children who have free school meals, students with English as an additional language, certain ethnic groups, students with special needs, and so on, are under represented in grammar schools.”
Increasing numbers of parents are hiring private tutors in the hope their child will win a coveted place at grammar school.
Mr Karnavas said: “Some children have private tuition at a ridiculously young age, some are tutored at 5am, some are tutored late at night, some spend the summer holiday being crammed, some are offered cash incentives for ‘passing’ and some are placed under major strain.”
Christine Turner, a teacher from Tunbridge Wells who provides private tutoring for the 11 plus, said parents of pupils as young as seven has asked for tutoring.
“Parents are panicking,” She said. “I’ve had parents of children in infant school ask if I’ll tutor them, but I won’t tutor under year five.”
She said while some of the children she tutored did feel the pressure, others were confident they would pass.
Mrs Turner also said it was not uncommon for parents to pay private primary school fees as well as for private tutoring.
Mr Karnavas acknowledges the decision to have a selective system is a political one made by a democratically elected council and accepts its right to make it, but said that the system of testing was “seriously flawed”.
“Children develop at different rates and times,” he said. “Intelligence is not fixed and to pretend to be able to measure it accurately at 10 or 11 is a nonsense.”
Martin Frey, of the campaign group Stop the 11 plus, said: “There is no question that grammar schools are excessively middle class, so the claim that they aid social mobility is just not true.
“What distorts it is not just putting able children in grammar schools but also at the same time concentrating the children with lower aspirations in the other schools.
“Relatively able children are in schools where to be a swot is subject to bullying. It is unbalancing every school.”
Sarah Hohler, KCC cabinet member for education, said: “Kent’s 100 secondary schools include foundation trust, faith, grammar, community high, wide ability and academies.
“This offers something for everyone. The vast majority of young people are doing well, and we are working with all our schools to make sure that everyone achieves their potential.
“This year alone, more than 11,000 families registered their child to sit the Kent Test. If we believe in parental choice we have to listen to what this is telling us.
“We do not advise coaching or tutoring for the Kent Test. However, there is a substantial industry aimed at making parents and children think otherwise.”
POSTED: 18/10/2009 09:00:00
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