Absolutely. This was all about your abilities, and taking each and every pupil by his distinct abilities.

The advent, unfortunately, of comprehensive schools with as many as 1,500 pupils has seen an abandonment of those pupils who are given practical skills rather than academic. Apart from an over-concentration of IT education, practical subjects have all but disappeared from the school curriculum. This has the inevitable result of a huge deficit in skilled electricians, plumbers, toolmakers, et cetera, which we have experienced over the last few years, together with a whole generation of disenchanted youngsters who believe that their worth to society is negligible. By separating the truly academic pupils from those with more practical skills, we can concentrate on bringing out the potential of every pupil, irrespective of their academic abilities. There should, of course, be a transfer of pupils, as in my day, but perhaps on an expanded format. An examination at around 11 years of age should not be seen as a system of segregating the achievers from the non-achievers, but simply a method of identifying individual pupils’ abilities, preferences and proclivities.