ABSTRACT
The provision of free primary and secondary schooling for all children had been a central theme in TUC education policy even if over time the wording had changed, as for example from multilateral to comprehensive. The issue of comprehensive education and selection were inevitably intertwined. It was illogical to suggest schools following these different approaches could co-exist in the same area for the former assumed all local children would attend their neighbourhood school whilst the latter only accepted children selected either by success in an entrance examination if it was a local authority school or parental fees together with an entrance examination if it was a fee-paying school. In fact for those schools at the bottom of the pecking order in the fee-paying sector if the parents could afford the fees they would take pupils almost regardless of academic ability as measured by an internal or external examination. The arguments in support of either form of schooling were numerous and by 1960 well known. The educational case for selective education based upon examinations was based upon the fact that people differ in their abilities and aptitudes. More controversial was the belief that it was possible to measure the intelligence of a child around II years of age and produce a score, referred to as the intelligence quotient (IQ), which not only accurately recorded the level of intelligence at this age but provided a sound prediction of her or his ability when they became an adult. This faith in the accuracy of IQ tests was based upon the conviction that intelligence was largely innate and did not vary over time.
