UK PM race: Rishi Sunak vows to bring back grammar schools to uplift education system

Rishi Sunak, the UK's Conservative leadership candidate on July 28, Thursday said that he would bring back grammar schools if he is elected as the next UK prime minister. Speaking at Tory leadership hustings in Leeds, the ex-British chancellor was asked if he would focus on bringing back the grammar schools and draft policies to uplift the education system, Sunak affirmed: "Yes".

“I believe in educational excellence, I believe education is the most powerful way we can transform people’s lives. But I also think there’s lots we can do with the school system as we have it," Sunak said, according to UK newspaper The Independent.

Sunak hails UK Education Secretary Michael Gove's reforms

Sunak hailed UK's Education Secretary Michael Gove's contribution towards the education system who, by December 2020, made at least 557 free schools of the total 24,000 schools and had also rebrokered the system into a new academy chain. “Now what Michael Gove did several years ago was transformative," Sunak said. The ex-UK chancellor further added that Gove had "vested interests, challenged consensus, brought in some reforms that mean that millions of our children now are better off."

He then continued that Gove's policies for the betterment of education was, in fact, a Conservative way to do it. '"It’s not about throwing more money at the problem, it’s about reforming the system to get better outcomes. And that’s what I would do with education as well," said Sunak. 

"There's lots we can do with the school system as we have it [in the UK]," UK's Conservative leadership candidate Sunak emphasised. 

The UK government had typically abolished the tripartite system, phasing out the grammar schools in 1965 and had replaced it with a comprehensive system with many localised institutions. England got its first grammar school more than five decades ago where children at age 11 took up the examinations. Those who qualified the exam could enroll in the grammar school, and those who struggled eventually had the option to go to a secondary modern school.

But later, the UK introduced the comprehensive system, wherein pupils with all aptitudes could study together. At present, there are no grammar schools in Wales or Scotland since the passing of the Education Act 1944 that switched the education system. It was speculated that the selective system had increasingly reinforced class distinction. As Sunak vouches to become the next premier of Britain, he promised to revive the grammar school system once again.