My fiance went to school in Kent where they still have the 11-plus/Grammar school system.

He failed his 11 plus by just a few marks - (not surprisingly as his family was in utter turmoil at the time with his parents' divorce) - and went to a secondary modern, which he left with just a handful of low grade GCSEs.

He now works in a low skilled job and claims he is not "academic" enough to do anything more.

The awful thing is - he's really, really intelligent! I've been to University myself (I grew up in Wales under the Comprehensive system) and he's brighter than half the idiots I went to Uni with. But he just can't see this.

I honestly feel that his schooling was to blame - secondary modern kids simply don't seem to be pushed/encouraged to do well or even made to think that they can!

Is it right to map put a child's future life on the basis of one simple exam which they sit at a very young age?! I can't beleive parts of the UK still use this antiquated system!
He went to school in Medway so the school was called a "High School" but it was just a glorified secondary modern
My point is that many children are late-maturers and don't realise their full academic potential until their teens. By which point they've failed their 11-plus and been dumped on the scrap heap.

If you've been told you are "not academic" from the age of 11 then its going to be very hard to get the confidence at the age of 25 or 26 to beleive that you can be . . .
Cyber Frog - and what gives you or anyone else the right to decide who gets a "good" education and who gets a "bad/indifferent" education? One exam at the age of 11 isn't a reliable test of a young child's potential. What else are you going to base it on? Class? Money? Its just elitist nonsense.

If you almost pass your 11.plus exams or you want your kid to go to a grammar school you can appeal for them to go.
Maybe his parents didnt know this but he could of gone to grammar school.

The system is fallible, it has always been so. The answer to your fiance's scholastic plateau is open enrollment in a private college; although the cost could prove prohibitive, it would allow him advancement opportunity and also improve his self-worth and self-esteem.

In the US, we have the 'No Child Left Behind' system that has dumbed-down primary education to the slowest of the slow. If children cannot master the subjects required to pass a national testing regimen, they change the test. It is to the point that all a child has to be able to do is write his/her own name correctly three out of five times.

There has to be a universal answer, but neither your qualification testing nor our advancement of the inept system is it.

We need to realise that everyone is not the same life is a competition and will always have people of differing abilities but the education system continually ignores this fact.Many people have neuther the capacity or the will to learn.

University is not for all it is primarily for higher education and that is obviously for the more able. The current drop out rate is terrible and a direct result of allowing too many people with neither the will nor the capability in many cases to cope.

More emphasis is placed on the experience than the educational advantages or the need to do something while there.

University should be for those that earn it by being among the best not a direct tool of social policy and government manipulation.

Going to a grammar school has nothing to do with it. Yes if you pass the 11-plus you go to a more able school and mix with other children of similar abilities but that what the test is there for...to weed out the weak.

Its even more frustrating if you are intelligent and can't go to a grammar because your parents don't believe in God. The case with my little brother. He's been denied despite a pass because places are filled by CofE and catholic children before the atheists and other faiths get a chance.

He's a year ahead of his peers, has passed his grade 6 piano at the age of 10 and is well known in our community for his talents as an athlete. But none of it helps...so my parents are having to pay for him to go to a private school as opposed to the crappy comp one he's been given.

I sympathise but I really think your fiance needs a kick up the back side and needs to stop making excuses. He seems to be in a rut and needs you to slap him out of it or your lives and the lives of your children are going to be one long struggle...kids grow up to be like their parents you know!!

Good luck - I hope he sees his potential soon

I'm in Kent too and I got into a grammar school, I think that the problem is that state comprehensives are so bad that the parent feels their only choice is to try and get the kids into a grammar - although the grammar schools are probably not helping, you can't expect parents to sacrafice their kids education to help the country!

If there were no grammar and private schools I don't think education will be 'brilliant', I think it would improve as its not having all the working class kids in one place and all the middle class in another, but the government have proved they just cannot look after education - my children will either go private or abroad.

Yes, I do. Unlike your fiance I did pass my 11+ but was unable to get a place at the local Grammar so had to settle for a place at the local state school. Like Clive who answered above, this didn't stop me applying myself personally and achieving what I needed to at school. I think I came out of the system quite well basically through my own hard work and determination.

The problem with scrapping Grammars as Ed Balls seems intent on doing is that instead of raising the level of education in the State system, they lower the bar. Basically, instead of some people getting a good education and some people getting a bad or indifferent education, Labour's policy is to ensure that everyone gets an equally bad education. Equality for all!

There's an old saying. Those who can, do. Those who can't, become Labour front benchers. So weak!

Yes. Failed 11+. Obtained 5 GCE`s at O level.

I go to a grammar school and i think it's great. it is all girls and we can just have fun! i don't think it means we are all clever but i think some aspects of grammar schools can improve already able pupils and the pace is a lot faster than some other schools.

It is surprising that everybody who failed their 11 plus seems to have failed by only a few marks.

If he wants to achieve anything it is up to him, don't blame the system there are plenty of opportunities.