"Lotteries should be used for school selection"

Andrew Porter:

Lotteries should be used to award pupils places at schools across England under plans that would see the abolition of grammar schools, a Government-backed report has recommended.

Admissions rules should be introduced to make the system fairer to pupils from poor backgrounds, the researchers said.

Lotteries would be unpopular with parents, many of whom have paid large premiums on their homes to make sure they are in the catchment area of a good school.

The report also calls for faith schools to be made to take a quota of children from non-religious backgrounds.

The study - by Sheffield Hallam University and the National Centre for Social Research - was attacked as "nonsensical" and "a waste of money".

Posted by Jim Zellmer at February 2, 2008 3:01 AM
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