THE BEST IN EDUCATION
SiR,—Mr. Hunt's figures show that barely one-third of the open scholar- ships at Oxford and Cambridge colleges in 1946-47 were won by boy§ in schools maintained or aided by Local Education Authorities. But, according to the Barlow Report on Scientific Man-Power, four-fifths of the ablest boys in this country pass into these schools from the primary schools. .What happens then? Mr. Hunt's letter gives the chief reasons why these boys don't go on to win four-fifths, instead of only one-third, of the open scholarships. While, however, he recognises the danger to the schools (of lower standards in L.E.A.s' grammar schools) and the unfairness to the boys (who, at the right schools, would win their way to the university) he does not mention the harm done to the nation and to mankind by this neglect of perhaps half our best brains. My remedy for this neglect would not be to improve all the L.E.A.s' grammar schools, either absolutely or relatively to their modern and technical secondary schools, but (as you allowed me to suggest in The Spectator of April 18th) to transfer the ablest 5 per cent, of the age group at the age of 13+ from ordinary secondary schools to higher secondary schools where the education would cost more to provide, where the Burnham scale of salaries would not apply, and where those pupils who want it would get almost as good a preparation for the university as at Rugby or at the Manchester Grammar
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