• Skip to main content
  • Skip to secondary menu
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer
  • About DNS
  • Subscribe to DNS
  • Advertise with DNS
  • Support DNS
  • Contact DNS

Disability News Service

the country's only news agency specialising in disability issues

  • Home
  • Independent Living
    • Arts, Culture and Sport
    • Crime
    • Education
    • Employment
    • Housing
    • Transport
  • Activism & Campaigning
  • Benefits & Poverty
  • Politics
  • Human Rights
You are here: Home / Education / Campaign calls on supporters to tell ministers: ‘Educate, don’t segregate’
Three people looking at the camera, one holds up a sign saying educate don't segregate and another holds a sign about inclusive education

Campaign calls on supporters to tell ministers: ‘Educate, don’t segregate’

By John Pring on 1st December 2016 Category: Education

Listen

A new campaign is calling on disabled people and their allies to show their opposition to “deeply flawed” and “discriminatory” government plans to increase provision of grammar schools in England.

The Alliance for Inclusive Education (ALLFIE) is hoping that its Educate Don’t Segregate campaign will highlight how expanding selective education will lead to a “dramatic reduction” in mainstream education placements, and increase segregation, for disabled pupils and those with special educational needs (SEN).

ALLFIE is calling on supporters to photograph themselves with the “Educate Don’t Segregate” slogan, and share the pictures on social media with the hashtag #educatedontsegregate.

ALLFIE points out that disabled pupils, particularly those with higher support needs, are vastly under-represented in grammar schools, and that a more selective system will further discriminate against them.

It says there was no mention of disabled pupils in the government’s consultation paper on its plans, Schools That Work For Everyone, when it was published in September.

Now ALLFIE is trying to persuade as many opponents as possible to voice that opposition by taking part in the consultation before it closes on 12 December.

ALLFIE says the government’s plans are a clear breach of article 24 of the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (UNCRPD), which states that an education system that separates and segregates disabled children is a violation of their right to mainstream education.

And it points to guidance published this summer by the UN’s committee on the rights of persons with disabilities, which says that all segregated education should be replaced by “inclusive classroom teaching in accessible learning environments with appropriate supports”.

Laws currently ban any new grammar schools and prevent existing non-selective schools from becoming selective, but the government wants to expand existing grammar schools, create new selective schools and allow non-selective schools to become selective.

It says this will only be allowed if “action to expand existing selective schools or establish new selective schools is accompanied at the same time by support to ensure good quality non-selective places locally”.

But Tara Flood, ALLFIE’s chief executive, said: “The green paper does not so much as mention disabled pupils and those with special educational needs, let alone consider the impact of greater school selection on this already disadvantaged group.”

Flood said the government’s own figures showed disabled children with education, health and care plans (EHCPs) or statements of special educational needs (SEN) represent only 0.1 per cent of grammar school pupils, despite making up 1.8 per cent of the secondary school population.

And disabled children without EHCPs or statements make up only 4.2 per cent of grammar school pupils, but 12.4 per cent of all secondary school pupils.

Flood said these figures demonstrated “a truly shocking rate of underrepresentation which demonstrates that the proposals are inherently discriminatory”.

She added: “It is clear that selection will not, cannot deliver education that is inclusive of disabled children and young people with SEN.

“The very nature of selection via ability tests does the opposite.”

Kate Green, a former Labour shadow minister for disabled people, said that only 20 out of more than 7,500 children in grammar schools in the borough of Trafford in her constituency have an EHCP or statement, while only about three per cent are disabled or have SEN.

She said: “There’s something very wrong with a system that means so few children with special educational needs get access to our grammar schools.

“Parents tell me that there are problems with the entrance tests which don’t recognise the special needs of their children and they also tell me that they believe the grammar schools don’t want their kids.”

The Department for Education (DfE) has repeatedly refused to answer key questions about the consultation paper – including whether it accepts that it breaches the UN convention, and why there is no mention of disabled pupils – or even to say whether it carried out an equality impact assessment of its plans.

But a DfE spokesman said: “Every child, regardless of background or ability, should have access to an excellent education.

“We know that grammar schools provide a good education for their disadvantaged pupils and we want more pupils from lower income backgrounds to benefit from that.

“Our proposals will ensure that any new and existing selective schools will prioritise the admission of disadvantaged pupils and that they support other local pupils in non-selective schools to help drive up educational outcomes.

“As set out in the consultation document, we are clear that relaxing restrictions on selective education can and should be to the betterment, not at the expense, of other local schools.”

Picture (left to right): Brian Stocker, Andrew Lee and Raymond Johnson from People First (Self-Advocacy), showing their support for the campaign

Share this post:

Share on X (Twitter)Share on FacebookShare on WhatsAppShare on RedditShare on LinkedIn

Tags: ALLFIE Department for Education Grammar schools inclusive education People First Selective education

A photograph shows an audience raising their hands in a BSL sign. The words say: 'BSL Conference 2025. The future starts with us. Leeds 17-18 July. Be part of shaping the future of Deaf cultures and identities. Get 10% off with BDA10'

Related

Disabled people’s organisations consider halting engagement with disability minister over ‘brutal cuts’
3rd April 2025
Online provider charges disabled students thousands more for same qualification in ‘blatant discrimination’
27th March 2025
Activists will protest over government’s refusal to engage with ‘deep-rooted’ mental health bill concerns
20th March 2025

Primary Sidebar

On the left of the image are multiple heads of different colours - white, aqua, red, light brown, and dark green - all grouped together, then the words ‘Campaign for Disability Justice. Sign up to support. #OpportunitySecurityRespect’
A photograph shows an audience raising their hands in a BSL sign. The words say: 'BSL Conference 2025. The future starts with us. Leeds 17-18 July. Be part of shaping the future of Deaf cultures and identities. Get 10% off with BDA10'

Access

Latest Stories

Disabled MP who quit government over benefit cuts tells DNS: ‘The consequences will be devastating’

Disabled peers plan to ‘amend, amend, amend, amend, amend’ after assisted dying bill reaches Lords

Minister finally admits that working-age benefits spending is stable, despite months of ‘spiralling’ claims

This bill opens the door to scandal, abuse and injustice, disabled activists say after assisted dying bill vote

Timms says cuts must go ahead, despite being reminded of risk that disabled claimants could die

Absence of disabled people’s voices from assisted dying bill has been ‘astonishing’, says disabled MP

Timms misleads MPs on DWP transparency and cover-ups, as he gives evidence on PIP review

Ministers are considering further extension to disability hate crime laws, after pledge on ‘aggravated’ offences

Making all self-driving pilot schemes accessible would be ‘counter-productive’ and slow us down, says minister

Involve disabled people ‘meaningfully’ from the start when developing digital assistive tech, says report

Advice and Information

Readspeaker
A photograph shows an audience raising their hands in a BSL sign. The words say: 'BSL Conference 2025. The future starts with us. Leeds 17-18 July. Be part of shaping the future of Deaf cultures and identities. Get 10% off with BDA10'

Footer

The International Standard Serial Number for Disability News Service is: ISSN 2398-8924

  • Accessibility Statement
  • Privacy Policy
  • Site map
  • Bluesky
  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • LinkedIn
  • Threads
  • Twitter

Copyright © 2025 Disability News Service

Site development by A Bright Clear Web