GRAMMAR SCHOOLS' FATE
Snt,—Is there not another possible solution of the problem posed in Dr. Terry Thomas's admirable and timely article on " Grammar Schools' Fate "? The problem is how to maintain the standard of the best secondary schools in our statutory system now that secondary education has become the birthright of every boy and girl. The solution offered by Dr. Thomas is to 'prefer the existing " grammar school" type to the " technical" and " modern " types of secondary school, or to "multilateral" schools. But the conclusion I draw from Dr. Thomas's facts is that, if the quality of our best secondary education (and particu- lady that of intending undergraduates) is to be maintained, our Local Education Authorities -and the Ministry of Education must foster—not all grammar schools as such in preference ,to technical or modern schools, of which we have had comparatively little experience in this country but—those higher secondary schools in which ex-primary pupils who belong to the ablest 5 per cent. of their age-group and who look forward to a university education should receive, from 13 plus to 18 plus, as good a preparation for it as if they had been brought up in a leading public school. Many of these higher secondary schools should be boarding schools ; and their staffs should enjoy conditions of service equal to those of masters and mistresses in the best independent schools.
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