COMPREHENSIVE EDUCATION IN BRISTOL by Tom Nicholls
Controversy is now raging over the Labour Council's proposals for extending comprehensive education in Bristol. Following the disclosure of pert of the proposals by a Citizen member of the council, the Labour Group have now published the whole of the plan in detail. ‘The long-term proposals involve increasing the number of comprehensive schools in the city from the existing 14 to 20, and a major reorganisation of the rest of the secondary schools to fit into a comprehensive system, e.g, absorbing seven existing council grammar schools, These proposals are complicated by the fact that the Minister of Education has not granted the money for new school building, and in three areas short-term plans have been drawn upe
“] even plus selection will end next year and there are to be no more Corporation free places in the direct grant (fee paying) grammar schools. It is this last proposal which seems to have stuck in the throats of the traditionalists most of all, and the opposition has taken on an almost last ditch appaarance. The local press has featured prominently in the controversy and there has been at least a page full of letters on the topic most nights, Those from opponents of the scheme, many of them of the "angry parent" variety, have predominated, but they have not had their own way by any means.