Report insists comprehensives 'are not a failed experiment'

A planned overhaul of secondary education to get rid of the "bog-standard comprehensive" is a "recipe for chaos", according to a Labour MP who has been appointed to the Education Select Committee.

"A considerable number" of MPs were against the government plans for half of secondary schools to become specialist colleges by 2006, said David Chaytor MP for Bury North, yesterday as he launched a report praising comprehensives. Mr Chaytor criticised the plans as having been devised by London politicians who failed to appreciate that comprehensives were successful in many parts of the country.

The report, Comprehensive Secondary Education – Building on Success – written by eight eminent professors of education – has been sent to every MP in an attempt to influence their thinking before the autumn publication of a White Paper on overhauling schools.

Mr Chaytor, a former teacher, said: "There is a considerable number of MPs, not only in my party, who have a concern about the future of secondary schools. They are a like-minded group of MPs who feel strongly about this. This is not the result of a secret caucus plotting."

The report, published by the Campaign for State Education, a lobby group, argues that comprehensives should not be regarded as a "failed experiment" but as one that has not yet been tried in many areas of the country that still operate a selective system. It was commissioned in response to the Prime Minister's official spokesman's comments that the overhaul would mean the end of the "bog standard comprehensive".

The report warns that plans for specialist schools will lead to a two-tier system. Popular schools currently interview applicants and parents so they can select motivated pupils while other schools are left with the "hard to teach", the report said.

Introducing city academies and faith schools would only increase this social selection, it concluded, and added that comprehensive schools produced better results than a selective system. The proposals were an "absolute recipe for chaos", Mr Chaytor said.

A spokeswoman for the Department for Education and Skills denied the criticisms, saying: "Specialist schools and City Academies will not result in the creation of a two-tier system. We want all schools to improve standards, increase learning opportunities for their pupils and to develop their own strengths and character."