Leading article: Just pathetic

The Government's response to the Education Select Committee report on schools' admissions was pathetic. It proposed scrapping selection by aptitude at specialist technology schools - most of which do not take advantage of the selection opportunities available to them anyway. It offered nothing on the more controversial question of the 11-plus and the future of the country's 164 remaining grammar schools at a time when surely even the supporters of selective education must realise that - with the accent on providing cohesive education for 14- to 19-year-olds - 14 is a much more reasonable age to decide on a pupil's future.