School place lotteries could be scrapped

Just two years after they were introduced under a new admissions code, Ed Balls has suggested that lotteries were being overused by local councils and announced that he had ordered a review of their impact.

Mr Balls said that many parents saw admissions lotteries, which were introduced in an attempt to break the middle class stranglehold on the best schools, as "arbitrary" and "destabilising" to their children's education.

Last month, The Daily Telegraph disclosed how lotteries, which were piloted in Brighton, were being introduced across the country. Almost one in five councils in England said that some schools in their area were using the system to assign places.

 

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