We'll. proteet grammars say Tories

LOCAL Conservatives have pledged to do all they can to protect Dover schools if a ballot - similar to the one triggered in Ripon, Yorkshire - is held in Kent over the abolition of selective education.

The move follows news that antiselection campaigners now only have to gather less than 46,000 signatures from parents to trigger a ballot in Kent and they have until July 31 to do it. It was originally thought 80,000 names would be needed on the petition.

Shadow Education Spokesman John Bercow. and Dover's Conservative prospective parliamentary candidate Paul Watkins visited Dover Girls' Grammar School to see for themselves the high quality education that is provided.

"In our area, we have a brilliant mix of grammar schools and excellent high schools," said Mr Watkins.

"Sadly, this system which serves our community and children well is now under threat as a result of Government legislation.

"It is essential that we fight to preserve our local grammar schools which are renowned for their academic success, as well as Kent's education system as a whole.

"Examination results in Kent are well above the national average and are improving year on year.

"Abolishing our grammar schools and ending the present varied system of education in Kent would threaten the provision of quality education at all our schools. Money would be wasted on re-organisation rather than being spent on improved standards."

Mr Bercow said the great Labour lie before the election was to promise to protect these schools. "That was Tony Blair's personal guarantee. Now every grammar school, every year faces a continual threat of a ballot to force closure."

Martin Frey, spokesman for Stop The Eleven Plus in Kent, told the Mercury they were concerned about the sudden change in the number of signatures needed to trigger a ballot in Kent.

"We had what we thought was an informed guess at the number and it was accepted as realistic by Kent County Council," he said.

"Our estimate was based on the total number of children at Kent schools. It contained assumptions about the number of children each family has at school, how many parents each child has and how many children at independent schools have parents living in Kent.

"The threshold number is found by Electoral Reform (Ballot services) Ltd who are running the whole ballot process in all areas.

"They have used the lists provided by all schools and been able to weed out duplicates (brothers and sisters) and I believe they found more than we estimated."

Mr Frey said they never imagined that it would take five months for ERBS to work out the figure. "That is a cause for concern about the viability of the whole process in an area the size of Kent."