Covid-19 is about to expose the myth behind grammar school selection

The summer holidays are approaching, and no one knows what the autumn term will hold. While there is no such thing as normal any more, one thing seems certain: at a time when every other child in the country has done no tests or exams, the 11-plus, that most indestructible of English institutions, is to soldier on, come what may.

There are grammar schools in a quarter of English local authorities, 12 of which are fully selective. Grammars take far fewer children from disadvantaged homes, or with special needs or disabilities, or from some ethnic minority groups than their neighbouring schools.

Their existence rests on the idea that there are clever children and everyone else, and that a series of tests over a few days in September can determine a 10-year-old’s ability and potential.

Preparation and coaching shouldn’t be necessary, say their supporters, since fixed ability is an almost magical property that some children have, and others do not. But even then, its definition varies. Some selective areas use a form of IQ test, others include curriculum-based material, such as maths and English papers, which inevitably stray into the area of prior learning and achievement and fuel a lucrative private tuition industry.

So how to manage this in the middle of a pandemic? Selective areas and individual grammar schools seem at odds. Some plan to run their tests as usual in September, others hope to delay until later in the autumn to create the impression they are helping children on the wrong side of the income and digital divide to catch up.

Draft government guidance, yet to be published, suggests sensitivity to allegations of inequality in this antediluvian process. At a time when ministers are trying to create the impression that more poor children can be shoehorned into selective schools, they are likely to come down on the side of delay so children can have more time to prepare.

But this is proof, if ever we needed it, that selection is not a test of fixed innate ability – and that such a thing doesn’t exist. If lost learning time makes it harder for pupils from certain backgrounds to pass the test, then more learning time – the norm for wealthy families in the most selective areas – must make it easier.

Related: 'The gap will be bigger than ever': grammar school exams still going ahead

Most scientific opinion agrees that intelligence, potential, ability – whatever you want to call it – is a mixture of environment and heritability. The results of any test or exam are subject to conditions on the day and the degree of preparation. At the height of the selective era hundreds of thousands of children were estimated to have fallen on the wrong side of the ability line. The 11-plus is as much about luck and how much private tuition your parents can afford, as about innate potential.

So, what happens next? These must be anxious times for proponents of selection, now in a tangle of conflicting claims that innate ability requires time to prepare.

But worse may be to come. What happens in the autumn if there are more lockdowns, and what about children and families who are ill or have to shield? It is the poorer families and those from BAME backgrounds who have been hardest hit by Covid-19. Will they be taking their entrance exams at home (clearly not thought a viable option for GCSEs and A-levels)? Who will decide which child is eligible for a grammar school place without the veneer of the test?

By then the secondary transfer process will be steaming ahead and an alternative way of allocating places without making it even more unfair will have to be found. The lawyers will have a field day.

There is a simple solution. The grammar schools could admit a comprehensive intake like everyone else. The sky wouldn’t fall in and there could be advantages. Some families might be pleasantly surprised by their local non-selective schools. The rest of us could see how apparently superior grammar school teaching coped with more diverse intakes.

A fudge will probably be found. Grammar schools have always played by a different set of rules. They get a golden ticket in league tables and Ofsted inspections by virtue of their intakes. In normal years parents get to know if their children have passed the test before they make other secondary applications, so they don’t waste a preference. The metrics used to judge others – narrowing gaps for example – are largely irrelevant to them.

But Covid-19 may be about to expose the myth behind selection in a way that generations of anti-selection campaigners, including myself, have failed to do. Human potential is not fixed and quantifiable on random day in September. It is something that can be nurtured and can grow. Thousands of comprehensive schools in England are experts in the business of helping all young people achieve, regardless of their backgrounds. Let’s give grammar schools the chance to try.