Eleven Plus Research

It has taken a long time. The penny drops for some people very quickly. Others need `a little more time’. Perhaps this Eleven Plus blog has, at last, come up with a solution.

The question is:

“Who will fund research into finding new ways to assess Eleven Plus children?”

Back in 1890 the good folk of England allowed the `Whiskey Money Act of 1890’ to be promulgated. This was a tax on spirits where the money was credited to the county councils to allocate the money as they thought fit. The original scheme was for the money to be used to for police superannuation and the partly for the purchase of publican’s licences in order to buy up redundant public houses.

This proposal was challenged and the money was used to support technical education in England. Counties were given a free hand and 93 out of 129 councils spent their `whiskey money’ on technical education.

It is easy to see where this line of thought is going. We need to revive a long forgotten tax and use this money to fund research into the Eleven Plus. Naturally the money would need to be collected locally – and there would be no need, initially, for any to land up in the coffers of the treasury.

All it would take is for every mother and father of an Eleven Plus child to buy a bottle of whiskey. The tax would be used to fund researchers, educators and psychologists.

Eventually the Government would want to jump onto the band wagon. An `Eleven Plus Quango’ would be established. There would be a `Minister of the Eleven Plus’. In time the minister would have a full department. The first `Minister of the Eleven Plus’ would be honoured and find a place in the House of Lords.

The Act of Parliament would be called: “The Eleven Plus Whiskey Act’ 2008”.

Every parent who sipped a little dram of 20 year old would be `doing good’ for the youth of England. How proud would they feel?