FAIR CHANCE OF EDUCATION FOR POOR KIDS SHOCKER

28-02-2007

Fed up of people pretending to be church-goers to get into a religious school; tired of smug middle class parents who believe in the state education system but only because they can buy a house close enough to qualify for the local Oxbridge hothouse? Then move to Brighton.

The local council there last night voted to award all secondary school places on a lottery basis. Children will be designated as belonging to one of six catchment areas, and then allocated a school within it on a random basis.

Selection by the back door is replaced by the luck of the draw.

In Birmingham, as many as 33% of parents miss out of their first choice secondary school anyway - could this be one way of ensuring fairness and tackling the increasing ghettoisation of education throughout the West Midlands?

All too often, it's the families who know how to work the system who get the best deal for their kids - doesn't this go a long way towards solving the problem of sink schools? Discuss.