Balls accused of targeting grammars

Mr Balls declared that many children who fail the 11-plus begin their secondary school careers feeling like failures.

And secondary moderns struggle because they teach six times as many children from the poorest homes as more affluent grammar schools nearby, he said.

In what appeared to be a co-ordinated move, Mr Balls' deputy, Schools Minister Jim Knight, challenged the Tories to clarify whether they support academic selection. Mr Balls has raised the prospect of grammar schools merging with secondary moderns in "federations", a move that critics said would create new comprehensives.

The National Grammar Schools Association accused the Government of a "stealth" campaign to abolish academic selection.

Robert McCartney, chairman of the National Grammar Schools Association, said: "This is part of an ongoing insidious attack on grammar schools which are the best performing sector in the state school system. Electorally the Labour Party knows that to say 'We are going to abolish grammar schools and selection' would be an absolute disaster."

Mr McCartney's remarks followed a rare attack on academic selection by a Government minister.

Mr Balls set out plans to give extra cash to struggling secondary moderns to help them overcome the problems that selective education creates. In a speech to heads in Birmingham, Mr Balls said: "Let me make it clear that I don't like selection.

"I accept though that selection is a local decision for parents and local authorities. But I do not accept that children in secondary moderns should be left to fall behind," he said.

"Some secondary moderns are showing that it is possible to achieve really excellent results. But the fact is that selection does make it more difficult for these schools."