As the country, and MPs including Hitchin's Bim Afolami await the results of Sue Gray's inquiry into Boris Johnson's Partygate, read the latest Nub News column from our town's Parliamentarian.

............

Hitchin Nub News column by Bim Afolami MP:

We need to rejuvenate the idea of meritocracy

One core aspect to my political philosophy is my absolute commitment to the future - the economic, social and physical environment that we provide for our young people.

I have an overriding belief in the importance of providing high quality opportunities to the young people in this area and across the country, regardless of their race, religion, or background.

It is why I set up my Opportunity Fellows programme, which provides work experience and opportunities to underprivileged teenagers from our area.

When we can identify children with talent in any domain, we need to champion, develop, and channel that talent so that it reaches its true potential.

We have long taken this approach with promising future Olympians, or future top musicians.

Why do we think about academic and intellectual achievement so differently?

We need to focus on developing our brightest and most talented people, in a range of different fields, from a young age – and do this irrespective of their social background.

Talent is evenly distributed in this country, but opportunity is not. We need to reboot meritocracy in Britain and stand up to the growing number of people who criticise it.

The best way forward is to learn from the failures and successes of the past.

We do not need a national 11 plus in the old style, separating everyone into sheep and goats at too young an age on the basis of a single set of exams.

We need more of a variegated school system that has lots of different types of schools from technical schools to music schools and arts schools, but which also makes room for highly academic schools in the state sector.

We have already provided the material for this with state sixth form academies – Brampton Manor Academy, for example, is situated in Newham, East London, with one in five children eligible for free school meals. The sixth form is highly selective (on the basis of GCSE grades), and it cultivates a highly academic atmosphere, with intensive Oxbridge training as well as a host of extracurricular subjects. Last year it won 55 places at Oxbridge – their method is working.

The Government could push this revolution further by allowing academies to select for a wider range of talents from 11-16 as well – for arts, music, sporting, and academic abilities.

For example, we should turbocharge the intake for our university technical colleges (starting at 13-14 years old) by scouring the country and actively selecting children with special aptitude in technical, engineering and design skills.

These are the children who will go on to build our future high tech manufacturing capacity, or develop the sort of innovative ideas that will help us achieve Net Zero by 2050.

In addition to this, we should create a system of fully-funded national scholarships, awarded on the basis of a combination of IQ and social need, that would allow children to study at any school in the country – opportunities to be selected for this would happen continuously throughout secondary school, lest late developers be missed.

Private schools should be forced to open up a certain number of places to these students.

These National Merit Scholars may be given free university education in return for agreeing to spend at least 10 years working in the public sector.

Those with enough money can choose to send their child to a private school that is highly academic, or highly sporting, or with a brilliant arts programme or music centre.

Why shouldn't this choice be there for the majority of parents who send their children to school in the state sector?

We need to rejuvenate the idea of meritocracy, and truly ensure that the most talented, from every background can get to the top in every field.

It will benefit the children, and it will benefit our country.

Bim Afolami is MP for Hitchin and Harpenden