ABSTRACT
This book is essentially about social justice in the provision of education in our society. Earlier in the century the argument about opportunity was focused on access to educational institutions (especially grammar schools and universities); it was assumed that if selection could be made ‘fair’ then the problem of educational opportunity would be solved. This assumption was wrong for at least two reasons. First, the problem of access was inevitably connected with the related problems of selection, achievement and performance, all of which are correlated with social class. Second, the assumption of fairness was based on a meritocratic view rather than one that was genuinely egalitarian. Today we have to ask whether it is any more ‘just’ that a person should be favoured and rewarded because he has a high IQ than because his father has a high income.
