May's grammar school plans 'put six years of educational progress at risk'

heresa May’s plans to open new grammar schools could put at risk years of progress towards a rigorous education for all children, the Conservative former education secretary Nicky Morgan has said.

        

The MP, who performed the role under David Cameron until July, said plans to increase academic selection were at best a distraction and at worst “risk actively undermining six years of progressive education reform”.

Morgan is the most senior Tory to speak out against May’s plans, although Neil Carmichael, the Conservative chair of the education select committee, has also expressed reservations.

But, she added: “I believe that an increase in pupil segregation on the basis of academic selection would be at best a distraction from crucial reforms to raise standards and narrow the attainment gap, and at worse risks actively undermining six years of progressive education reform.

The Department for Education’s white paper was published under Morgan’s leadership earlier this year. The plans had no provisions for the return of grammar schools, and May has been criticised for appearing to introduce a policy not present in the Tory’s 2015 election manifesto.