OPINION: It is a question that probably won’t be in any Christmas cracker: how many grammar schools are there in comparison with non-selective schools?

The answer depends on how you count these things but there are about 3,500 secondary schools of which 164 are grammars.

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So why does debate on education often appear to be dominated by the 11 Plus (now Kent Test) when way more children attend non-selective schools?

Partly, it is about competing political ideologies which divide rather than unite. And given that Kent has the largest number of selective schools, these arguments are played out in the full glare of the public spotlight as much as they are around kitchen tables where parents anguish about “the test.”

The debate generates rather more heat than light. Grammar schools are undeniably successful so far as academic results are concerned. No surprise there: if your intake is taken from the 25% most able children as measured by the 11 Plus, you should be around the top of the league tables. This, supporters argue, is a case of how grammars “level up”. The issue, then, becomes what their impact is on non-selective schools and the challenges they face.

Have you heard all this before? You probably have. The question of whether grammars promote social mobility has been the subject of any number of reports and research papers over recent years.

And it’s among one of the first thing that any new - or aspiring - Conservative Prime Minister faces from MPs for whom grammar schools are an article of faith.

'Comprehensive Future says it begs the question if grammar schools are “a terrible idea for the rest of the country, why are they fine fro Kent?"...'

Rishi Sunak is confronting backbench MPs who believe the party should lift the current ban on new grammars immediately; interestingly, while the putative arguments for paving the way for a new generation of selective schools are extolled, very little is said about the impact they would have elsewhere.

The Prime Minister, when campaigning for the job was clearly discomfited by the question. First, he said he backed the idea of new grammars. Then he rowed back and said his support would be for expanding selective schools where changing social demographics such as a growing population created a demand for additional places.

Conservative policy is nuanced in a way which is clearly the product of spin doctors trying to please everyone but satisfies no one.

According to a Conservative peer challenged on the government’s position last week replied: “As I have said, the department’s priority is to concentrate on ensuring that as many children as possible, whatever their ability, have access to an outstanding education, rather than creating more grammar schools.”

Read that carefully: it amounts to a tacit acknowledgement that the virtues of a selective system are skewed.

The campaign group Comprehensive Future says it begs the question if grammar schools are - in its words “a terrible idea for the rest of the country, why it is fine for Kent to have 32 of them?”

That’s also a question you won’t find the answer to in a festive cracker.

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