Assisted places
It was an escape hatch from the educational quagmire of the local sink comprehensive for the bright child of an abandoned woman or an impoverished working-class couple.
The incoming Labour government abolished this hugely popular scheme in 1997 and the money “saved” disappeared without trace.
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Hide AdA study has been made of two groups with similar ability and parental background half of whom used the scheme to go to private schools while the others went to state schools.
The results show the huge benefit of the scheme and the Sutton Trust, which campaigns to improve social mobility through education, rightly says it should be brought back.
(Dr) John Cameron
Howard Place
St Andrews, Fife