Ripon Grammar saw the only parental ballot on grammar schools

The education select committee says too many families are frustrated by the applications process for school places.

It says grammar schools - and those with more limited forms of selection - can contribute to the lack of desirable places available to other pupils.

"All forms of selection at one set of schools have, as a matter of arithmetic, consequences for other schools," says the report.

The report, Secondary Education: School Admissions, says that selection by aptitude is "hard to defend" when there are no clear educational benefits.

Policy shift?

It also says that partial selection - where some places are reserved for pupils with a particular aptitude, such as for music - should also be withdrawn.

All forms of selection at one set of schools have, as a matter of arithmetic, consequences for other schools Secondary Education: School Admissions report School choice: your experiences Sheerman questions 'choice' School admissions "frustration"

Specialist schools - which in a couple of years will represent three-quarters of secondary schools in England - can select up to 10% of pupils by aptitude.

At present, very few specialist schools use this option, but there have been concerns from opponents of selection that it could be used more extensively in the future.

The report accuses the government of making "significant shifts in policy" over admission by selection, without any public debate.

"A government that permits the continuing expansion of selection, by ability or aptitude, can only be understood to approve of both the practice of selection and its outcomes," says the report.

The committee chairman, Barry Sheerman, said on BBC Radio 4's Today programme: "The real thing that worried us is that there are a lot of schools that had partial selection before 1997-98.

"The government has allowed them to continue that on the same basis, but they don't know which schools they are or what the rules were before 1997-98, so they could even check them.

"We say, for goodness' sake, let's tidy this up and have a system that is transparent, open and fair, so parents know where they are."

Pressure on grammars

Grammar schools - which the report notes have grown in pupil numbers in recent years - are not singled out for attack, as some reports had suggested they might be.

But the committee is critical of the ballot process set up by Labour to allow some parents to determine the future of local grammars.

This is not parental choice, it is selection for the benefit of the few Steve Sinnott, NUT leader

At present, campaigners wanting to remove grammar school status from a local school have to negotiate a complex, two-stage petition and ballot procedure.

This system, which has so far never changed the status of a grammar school, should be scrapped as being fundamentally flawed, says the committee.

The process of petitioning and ballots is a "waste of time and resources" which should be stopped, the report says, regardless of any other judgements about the value of retaining grammar schools.

The attack on selection in schools was backed by Steve Sinnott, leader of the National Union of Teachers.

"The government may call it selection by aptitude, but that is meaningless against a background of targets and league tables which put pressure on schools to pick and choose their pupils. This is not parental choice, it is selection for the benefit of the few.

"Charles Clarke [the education secretary] is insistent that Labour policy is 'non-selective, anti-selective'. If that is really the case, he must take very seriously this report from the select committee," he said.

The Campaign for State Education also welcomed the report.

"It has clearly identified the unfairness, inconsistencies and lack of coherence in the current situation over admissions and selection," it said.

The leader of the Association of Teachers and Lecturers, Mary Bousted, said the government was "hopelessly muddled" in its approach to selection.

Selection for some reduced parental choice for the majority.

"It is difficult to reconcile these contradictory approaches, and we will continue to suspect political sleight of hand until the DfES and the prime minister sort out their thinking in this crucial area".