14th May 2012 11:29
By Blue Tutors
Affluence a Factor in 11+
In an article today on the BBC News Education pages, Hannah Richardson reports that Buckinghamshire Council has apparently caused outrage in advising a school not to use the 11+ exam as a means of ensuring a ‘broad spread of abilities’ is admitted. The Council claims that parents on a lower income, who may be unable to afford extra tuition for their children targetted at the 11+, are more likely to withdraw their child from the exam, thus denying them the opportunity of going to a grammar school.
Buckinghamshire Council uses the test to decide whether a child should attend an upper school or a grammar school, yet in the letter to the Academy which wished to use the test they caution against its use, saying, "In the application of any test (11-plus, Cats or Sats), we know that affluence is a factor."
Richardson writes ‘Critics of the 11-plus and the grammar school system often claim that children with parents able to pay for private coaching are more likely to pass the tests.But this notion is rejected by supporters of grammar schools who say they give bright children the chance of a quality education.’
As part of Blue Tutors, however, I can say that we receive many requests for 11+ tuition daily - it certainly seems to be a test for which tuition is deemed almost necessary with parents becoming quite desperate at times.
While the school involved has now decided not to use the 11+ as its admission test it seems the council has no plans to stop its use in determining which students have the opportunity to attend a grammar school. It appears odd that they can be so hypocritical in acknowledging a test’s downfall but still maintaining at as a deciding factor in the life of a child.