KENT – A COUNTY STUCK IN THE PAST Kent Labour has welcomed the article by Fiona Millar published in yesterday’s Guardian which highlighted the county’s outdated education system.Kent Labour Children & Families spokesperson Clive Hart says: “I completely agree with Fiona Millar that in Kent, time has stood still. It’s clear that selective education continues to segregate children along class lines. There are only a few children from deprived backgrounds attending grammar schools. “Fiona Millar was also right to say that Kent’s proposal to allow parents whose children are taking the 11+ to know the results before they apply to any other school – which would mean moving the 11+ exam from January to September – would effectively give some parents two goes at school choice, as a reward for applying for selective education. The Tories in Kent have been trying to bring in this ‘two goes’ system for some time. “But we’ve seen in the last year that even David Cameron and his Shadow Cabinet are starting to turn away from the kind of selective system that limps on under Cameron’s Conservative colleagues at KCC”. Christine Angell, Kent Labour Education spokesperson, added: “Like many areas with high numbers of grammar schools, Kent continues to underperform educationally. There are 32 schools across the county where less than 30% of young people have achieved A* to C at GCSE including English and Maths. This is the highest number in any single council area of the 638 low performing state schools in England which were recently identified by the Department for Children, Schools and Families as needing ‘action plans’ to turn their results around. “I have to say it is also hugely disappointing that this year, only 70% of youngsters will get their first preference school, whereas last year 74% were successful. This will lead to an increasing sense of failure amongst pupils transferring to secondary placements. By continuing to retain the selective system Kent County Council is failing the vast majority of our young people.“Preserving Kent’s history has its place, but that place isn’t any school in the 21st Century. It’s about time that KCC came out of its timewarp and started looking after the interests of all young people, not just a privileged few.”
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