Sir, Your correspondents (letters, Sept 1) write as if there were no need for evidence in discussing the contribution of grammar schools. Bald assertions and personal stories are offered without embarrassment.
There is, however, abundant data to show that selective schools failed to improve social mobility in the UK. They let down many of their pupils who left at age 16, despite high academic ability. In 1963, at the peak of the grammar era, the Robbins Report recorded that only 118,000 students were enrolled at university. In 2011, after 40 years of comprehensive education, there were 1,367, 330 full-time undergraduates in UK higher education.
These figures demonstrate that comprehensive schools have been a fantastic success, greatly improving educational opportunity and providing large numbers of people, especially women, with a flying start towards socially mobile careers.
Professor Bernard Barker
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(Emeritus, University of Leicester)
Peterborough