Grammar schools have good intentions, however, I think they shouldn't be selective. Now, I know that this defeats the point of them I think this:
Grammar schools inherently have very high standards of teaching. So why can't this level of teaching be made available to everyone? I myself, a high ability student, applied to the few grammar schools in London.
The ones in South East London are predominantly confined to the Borough of Bexley. I missed out on a place by 8 points. I know people that missed out by 10 points, 5 points, 1 point. I also have a learning difficulty but this failed to he picked up on at the time. Therefore, I didn't have the necessary provisions in place that I now receive for exams.
So just because I was failed by the SEN department in primary school, I should be robbed of a high standard education? This is wrong. Aside from that, every child regardless of intelligence or wealth should be able to access high standard education, but by having grammar schools, this simply isn't the case. It's unfair that just because a child isn't in the top 5 in his class in primary school, they have to be left with bog standard teachers.
In addition, the amount of stress that entrance exams place on an 11 year old is disgusting. I sat 11 different exams and the amount of stress I had to endure from age 10-11 was horrific. Those years shouldn't be about taking exams. They should be about playing outside with your friends, playing games online or searching random things on Google, but instead your cooped up all day practising for these exams and taking them. The last thing is that Grammar schools promote elitism. Some of these kids who have a better education either because they are wealthier, slightly more intelligent, or just had a good day on test day by chance come out of school thinking that they're better than everybody else, even those who are at the same level as them, but had to work a lot harder than them.