Farage: We need grammar schools to counteract elitism

Private school alumni dominate the country says Ukip's Nigel Farage, so bringing back the grammar system would make things "fairer". He tells Matt Frei: "What we've got now are a self-perpetuating rich".Sign up for Snowmail, your daily preview of what is on Channel 4 News, sent straight to your inbox, here: mailing.channel...
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[@SuperPlodder]

You are quite right, I was working class and made it to grammar school, and I think everyone should have that chance.

[@asianmohamed2065]

Paul Berlin I think that chance should be given to the kids who actually deserve and appreciate education.

[@jamesrxdriguez4773]

We need grammars AND non-grammars! We need different types of people in this world. If everyone went to the local comp, the smart people would be way ahead and quite frankly bored. Same goes for it the less bright people went to a top grammar school, they'd struggle and feel left behind. Solution? Grammar schools and non-grammar schools. Thank you ladies and gentlemen and good night.

[@aaronwarner1257]

James Vanquish if only everyone else had this same level of logic andcommon sense , there just has to be an outlet for smart , intelligent hardworking kids that haven’t got a chance of going to private school because of there background/wealth but desperately need to be somewhere else other than there local comprehensive where they will be held back by illiterate , distruptive kids and bullying

[@jamesrxdriguez4773]

@@aaronwarner1257 thank you for your awareness. You would be surprised by how many people _still_ don't understand this!

[@igotvaccinated2816]

Right now we have too many non-grammars so we definitely need to stop attacking selection-by-ability grammar schools... i know the far-left like destroying childrens education but its pathetic and needs to stop.

[@robertkirk4387]

Why on earth is anyone arguing about the chance for a child to have a better education

[@JK-oc1lf]

because some believe the overachievers should level down in order to reduce levels of envy and jealousy

[@cangjie12]

Because the leftists believe that any sort of achievement is ‘unfair’. It is selfish to want your children to do well in school. It is selfish to want to have a good job and earn more money. Anyone who works hard and achieves things is selfish and evil, because we must all be the same. Having freedom to choose is also selfish and evil.

[@z0mbie443]

I go to a grammar school and I see it like this: If you do not work hard enough to pass the eleven plus, maybe you don't deserve to be in a grammar school. If children who should be in grammar schools are put in regular schools, they will be repressed and often bullied because of they're brains. You cannot help the class you're born into, but with grammar schools you have the opportunity to change it.

[@1948DESMOND]

anna, in some council estates, if you have and eleven plus cert under your arm, you are considered an upperclass snob!!! you see, the parents are even more illiterate than their childlren. theykeep their kids thick. they kn ow of no other lifestyle. but, yes, get t hose schools back. eleven is too young, though, is it not to decide a child's future. make it a 12 plus, 13 plus, even a 14 plus. but NOT an eleven plus, PLEASE!! i rest my case!

[@lelouchvibritannia4495]

Blondie McKenzie The problem is that 11 is the age children are at when they go to secondary school. And yes, I do agree, it is too young. A 14 plus, that might work, as there are technical colleges that admit students from that age. But the problem is that students do their GCSEs at secondary schools, and if they do go to a failing school, and fail, then they don't have much chance of going to a better school. However I believe that the reason why they would fail in any school whatsoever, is that they don't try hard enough. Learning difficulties are another story, but I have seen a lot of people who spend the entirety of their lessons talking and barely doing any work; to my anger, attempting to copy others' work. Set 2s and 3s are not pushed at all, while the top set is. So it's not that grammar schools need to go, but normal schools need to improve, or rather, the attitude of students need to improve. I do think that the overall secondary school system is messed up. I digress though, grammar schools admit those whose academic potential has already started to flourish. However there's still sixth form. External students can still get in, if they work hard enough for their GCSEs. I myself am hoping to apply to Grammar School Sixth Forms as an external student. :)

[@cathykinn4516]

​@1948DESMOND Grammar School & you've used "they're" instead of their.

[@darshanpatil7777]

​@@cathykinn4516😂💯

[@sanmus100]

Grammar schools have a reputation for having academically gifted children. Although this is true, it indirectly states that state schools aren't as bright and cannot produce kids who are that bright. This is clearly unfair those kids who weren't able to perform well on an exam that was enforced on them at such a young age. Some kids who join in the middle of their secondary education has to attend a state funded school as well. Establishment of many grammar schools might reinforce this pre conceived notion further.

[@Channel4News]

UKIP's Nigel Farage says a privately-educated elite are taking over the UK, and grammar schools are one way to Britain things fairer. Himself privately-educated, Farage has gone on the attack over the Tories' education policies

[@KarlHainer]

"With respect you are totally wrong"

[@peterpad1000]

Taking away grammar schools from the majority was and is a calamity for the whole working class kids. If 25% of kids have the brains to get to higher education through a grammar education then they should be given the access to do so. Why should the elite be given the right to guide the country when they do not understand or even comprehend the words the words "struggle" and "poverty".

[@asianmohamed2065]

So what he's privately educated? That wasn't solely his choice to be put in.

[@coranford7463]

Education is the right of EVERY child regardless of academic ability and back ground! The children most likely to suffer are those with special educational needs. EVERY child matters, EVERY child should have fair and equal access to education!

[@9x9gaming85]

I am for grammar schools, there just has to be something like at least 2 in a borough or something, so that the grammar schools still have a value to them. It’s also teaches kids lessons that working a bit harder goes a long way. I think the grammar schools are the perfect alternative to private schools

[@1948DESMOND]

eleven is t oo young todecide a child'#s future. why not do w hat theydo in germany? they have a FOURTEEN PLUS examination. and all the students are educated to the best of their best abiliity.

[@DuskAndHerEmbrace13]

DES FITZGERALD That’s true. There should be a test at 11 and further opportunity at 14 for the later bloomers to move in and for others to lose their place if they’re not up to it and got in by the sort of unfair tutoring advantage of anti-grammar anxieties.

[@demoncard1180]

I think that the grades and the opportunity business aren't the whole story. Our state schools claim to promote grades, while systematically blending cohorts and then trying to collect the cream of the crop through the use of sets; which were in my experience terribly corrupt and not without the same issue of demotivated problem children taking shits in class. The pace of your education should be determined not by your parents, or choice of school, but by your own intelligence and ability. Everyone should go to a grammar school - but not all grammar schools need to be as demanding of one's brain. Have all the morons in one school, and those who are still morons but motivated in another, those with talent in a third, and those with talent and motivation in a fourth. And a fifth grammar school for those special few who are so bad at maths to think that a handful of schools could serve the entire country.

[@offwiththefairies77]

"Liked" for others to view.

[@FoxBoy1992]

Typical liberal view: help the minority (the above-average students), but not the majority who you are supposed to represent. Libertarian, liberal, same world view, slightly different approach.

[@aryangod2003]

Only one thing I seem to Agree with Farage with (whatever his actual motivation is). Grammar schools definitely should be expanded into the urban areas, with selective exams. It is a potential pathway for Social mobility for the poor and lower classes. Nothing will be 100 percent fair, but it is better than the alternative. I am Liberal Democrat leaning (so pro European integration).

[@binkyboobosh1]

I find modern Britain, its decisions and thoughts, quite disturbing. Grammar schools are a thing of the past. The modern education model works. This is just another prompt to return to the 50s in attitudes. Things were awful in the 50s...nostalgia is a funny thing..