Sir, If the grammar schools had not been destroyed we would not now be having a debate about public schools producing our elite (“Old boys and girls still take top jobs”, Aug 28).
Chris Reaney
Marlborough, Wilts
Sir, My grandfather, an upholsterer, left school at 14. His son, my father, won a scholarship to a grammar school and went on to teach Classics after Durham University. My father and mother saved to send me to an independent day school whence I went to Oxford and became a judge.
Does the Social Mobility and Child Poverty Commission really think it just that my father and I should have been artificially impeded in our careers because of our education.
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His Honour Gerald Clifton
Heswall, Wirral
Sir, One day there are not enough students from disadvantaged backgrounds at Oxbridge; the next day there are too many Oxbridge-educated people in high places. Is this a plot to keep the poor in their place, or the effect of the chop logic course in PPE?
Peter Williams
Malvern, Worcs
Sir, It should be no surprise that years of work to open the leading professions have done little to dislodge the privately educated. Anthony Sampson said a decade ago that independent schools are now open to the wealthy and clever too, a formidable combination.
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Being clever from a disadvantaged background will not get you into an independent school and thence into Oxbridge and the professions. Some independent schools help with financial assistance and/or sponsoring academies. In Kent, several independent schools, helped by the Sutton Trust, have set up the Kent Academies Network, to provide mentoring and summer schools for academy pupils. The scheme also involves Fitzwilliam College, Cambridge, which sees it as a way of promoting open access to the college and other universities. This initiative will inevitably be limited by the availability of finance and the schools’ resources.
What is the solution to this lack of social mobility? Sampson identified a major cause of the problem as the closure of the grammar schools in the 1970s, which led to independent schools reasserting themselves. So a big part of a countrywide solution would be to open more grammar schools. This would not adversely affect the independent schools, as it would give them more opportunities for pursuing schemes like the Kent network. What a pity that, despite Michael Gove’s splendid reforms, the government is currently opposed to creating more grammar schools — surely the greatest engine of social mobility we have ever seen.
Looking at your statistics on MPs’ educational backgrounds, could it be that they want to preserve the system of “jobs for the boys (and girls)”?
Ian Hitchen
Bolton
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Sir, I was interested to read how the privately educated still take the top jobs. While I agree that these jobs should be open for all-comers, top positions need well educated and informed applicants. It is not the fault of private schools that their alumni take precedence. The fault lies with the government which consistently fails to provide a top-class education for the majority of pupils. So many intelligent and capable pupils fall by the wayside.
Sharon Pache
Terling, Essex