Going Comprehensive
Mr. Crosland's new plans for comprehensive schools look like government by not-always- gentle persuasion: send in your plans to the Ministry saying how far you intend to go com- prehensive and how fast. Money will no doubt be allocated accordingly. The plans depend on money, a lot of money, more money perhaps than the country has to offer; money not just for new schools, but money to cover wastage from the abandoning of old plans, for the training of new teachers, for the amalgamation of ,present small schools. I do not take the plans over-seriously. This is paper politics, paper promises. If the Min- ister had wanted to act quickly, he could have declared his intention of doing something about the direct grant schools, for there is little point in preserving the direct grant system if these schools are going to be no different from any others. He could have asked the Plowden Commission to hurry on its report on the age of transfer, for this, surely, is crucial. Instead Mr. Crosland says only that he will be prepared to allow a limited number of 'middle schools' where child- ren of primary and secondary age overlap pend- ing the report. And if the report recommends as is expected changing the age of transfer to thirteen, well, perhaps we start all over again. We need only the local authorities' reports to be as vague as the Minister's circular and our constant running up and down to stay in the middle of nowhere will be assured.
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