If we'd never had 11-plus would we choose it now?

The most able learners would be placed in the top sets and those in the lower sets would have the opportunity to progress as they improved. Everyone would be encouraged to work to their full potential and no one would feel like a failure. They would all be encouraged to improve and be given additional help when needed.

Now imagine someone saying 'I've got a brilliant new idea, let's change this system and test all of the children as they reach the age of 11. Then let's take the top 10% and send them to a separate grammar school.'

Assuming that they would be studying the same core GCSEs English, maths, science, IT and the arts etc, the following questions might be asked:

What on earth is the point? Why are you separating these learners from their friends? Isn't this a bit divisive?

Won't the 90% that didn't pass feel a bit like failures?

Don't you think dividing children might lead to dividing them as adults and ultimately lead to a division of society?

Why don't you go a stage further and divide them by gender or by religious beliefs? Maybe even on the ability to pay privately for their education? Yes, let's divide all of the island's schoolchildren up at the age of 11.

This new 'decide at 11 test' idea would be seen as quite ridiculous and would not be given the light of day.

Yes, the 11-plus worked well when you only needed a small percentage of learners to go on to university. But now we need at least 50% of young people to go on to take a relevant degree. This percentage will continue to increase as we try to satisfy the demand for suitably qualified professionals fit for the modern 21st century.

A special word to those that say 'If it's not broken don't fix it.' I say this is a wet blanket phrase spoken by those that just don't want any change. If we had applied this attitude over the years we would still be living in caves. It is not a case of 'fixing' something. It is simply a case of making improvements to the system.

Here is a shining example of an educational system that works and could be used as a blueprint. The college of FE delivers a wide range of programmes across a wide range of ability levels, e.g. some take the BTEC L3 in Engineering (equivalent to three A levels) and use this to then go onto some of the top universities including Brunel.

Those that struggled at school can start on a BTEC L1 foundation course and then may progress further or even go into industry and return as a day release apprentice.

The College of FE also delivers half day release courses for Year 10 and 11 pupils, e.g. BTEC L2 (equivalent to GCSE A-C). The college even has adult evening classes.

This, in my opinion, is an excellent model to follow with no selection by gender, religion or age etc. All ability levels are welcome and I wouldn't describe selecting a suitable level of programme as 'segregation.' I would describe it as providing a programme that matches the needs and ability levels of the learner and at the same time encouraging progression.

JOHN SEMENOWICZ.