Maidstone Green Party is calling for the abolishment of the Kent Test or eleven plus. The kids have to suffer increasingly test filled school life, which benefits no one except the government. Children know their abilities as do their parents, and their teachers certainly do, so who else matters when they are at this age.

Children have passed the test only to find that they cannot get a place in a grammar school, and have to settle for a distant high school. Other children and parents have felt enormous pressure both in the test itself and in the decision whether to take the test.

The Kent Test benefits no one. Children and parents are put under a great deal of stress whilst report after report shows no benefits for a selective education. The Greens point to the fact the selection puts many children at a disadvantage, creates elitist principles in others and destroys local social networks. They feel that whatever a person’s academic abilities everyone has an equal worth in our society.

The Kent test represents an outdated and complicated system that is not benefiting our children or their parents. Selection at any age simply puts some children at disadvantage, creates elitist principles and destroys local social networks and integration. We need to be bringing our children up to understand that, whatever our academic abilities, we all have equal merit in society.