It'll cost us to shut grammars

EDUCATION officials estimate that a switch from grammar schools in Kent to comprehensives could cost as much as £150m - yet there will be no extra money from the Government to pay for the change.

A spokesman for Kent County Council said: "This estimated figure comes after the local education authority undertook a desk-top exercise to look at the financial implications of changing Kent's education system."

Opponents of the change said if these costs were mirrored throughout the country local education authorities would have to find £500m.

That, they say, could lead to cuts in other education expenditure such as teachers' pay, books and equipment.

There are 33 grammar schools in Kent and 164. fully-selective schools nationally. Moves to do away with grammar schools in the Dover area 25 years ago came to nothing because of the cost of providing big enough buildings to accommodate fully comprehensive schools.

The issue of doing away with grammar schools throughout the UK is likely to become one of the biggest controversies of 1999 in Kent which has one fifth of the nation's fully selective schools.

But those fighting for the end of grammar schools say they are divisive and claim those children not selected for grammar education, about 80 per cent, risk being considered failures when they go out into the world of employment.

There are 71 non-selective secondary schools in Kent.

In Kent it will require 20 per cent of parents to demand a ballot on. the future of selective education, an estimated 80,000 signatures. A simple majority in a ballot would decide the issue.

A county council spokesman, commenting on the desk-top exercise, said:" We have studied a range of options including changing the status of all schools to comprehensives, irrespective of size and location, and amalgamating schools into larger comprehensives so that all schools have a minimum of six forms of entry."