Election '97: Grammar schools plan in chaos

John Major's plans to put a grammar school in every town were in disarray last night as it emerged that proposals for pounds 500,000 "bribes" to comprehensives willing to make the change have been dropped.

Last week, senior politicians said they were planning to allow schools to apply to become selective under the specialist schools programme, which gives grants of about pounds 500,000 to secondaries which raise pounds 100,000 in business sponsorship.

However, it has now emerged that the plan met with fierce opposition, not least from leaders of the existing programme, which creates schools concentrating on technology, sport, languages and the arts. They argued that their scheme had been highly successful, but might become less so if it were linked with the politically controversial plans for more selective schools.

Now the plans have been dropped, leaving schools with little reason to choose to become selective. Last night, a leader of the grammar schools movement said they would be unlikely to have any effect if there was no money involved.

Today, the Prime Minister and the Secretary of State for Education, Gillian Shephard, will announce that parents who want their schools to become grammars can petition for a ballot on the move. If a majority is in favour, the Secretary of State will decide whether to let them go ahead, removing any local authority role in the decision. The mechanism mirrors that already in place for schools which opt out of local authority control. A Grammar Schools Trust will be set up to give advice and support to the schools.

Today's announcement will also expand on plans to give schools more control of their own funds, making them "locally-maintained" separate entities which could employ their own staff and buy in their own services. Under the proposal, local authorities would retain only the residual roles of planning and advice.

Margaret Dewar, chairman of the Grammar Schools' Association, said that parents did want grammar schools - more than 40,000 pupils sat 11-plus exams this year for the remaining 160 schools - but new ones could not be created without funds. Schools would not want to become selective unless they could expand their sixth forms and employ more specialist teachers, she said, and that would cost money.

"I can't believe a school would just change for the sake of change. If there's no financial incentive I don't know how they are going to do it," she said.

Ironically, the change of heart could be seen as a victory over John Major for Mrs Shephard, who had never been in favour of a return to the 11- plus. She had emphasised, and will do so again today, that she would prefer to see a variety of schools with different specialisms and selection methods. "I have always felt that a school is good or bad according to who is the head teacher, not whether it is selective," she said in a newspaper interview two years ago.

The plans for more grammar schools have already met with opposition from campaigners for comprehensive education.

Ben Elton is among the first signatories of a national petition being launched today by the Campaign for the Advancement of State Education. It reads: "Selection is unfair. Selection for some means rejection for the majority. Selection undermines the provision of high quality education for all. I call upon the Government to abandon selection and support a system of fully resourced comprehensive schools."

Letters, page 16