CALL TO BRING BACK GRAMMAR SCHOOLS

David Frost, director general of the British Chambers of Commerce, said the education system was creating two nations - of haves and have nots.

He told the opening sessions of the Chamber's annual conference in London that half of Britain's youngsters were leaving school without five decent GCSEs.

"It is nothing short of a national disgrace. This is in the 21st century, not Victorian Britain."

Mr Frost pointed to recent figures showing that more than million young people were not in work, education or training while one in five were facing a lifetime on government handouts, double the figure in Germany and France and still growing.

"I can understand the desire to upgrade every school building in Britain but it is what goes on in the classroom that matters and clearly there is something wrong."

Mr Frost said there had been "endless" educational initiatives by the Government but he added: "This is the last chance saloon. If we again fail to improve the performance of our schools I believe it is time to look at the reintroduction of selection at the age of 13, to reintroduce grammar schools which were the great escape route for the working class in post-war Britain until they were dismembered in the 1970s, and also to reintroduce technical schools, not metal work and woodwork but IT, specialist engineering and science."

Mr Frost warned that unless the position improved he feared people leaving school with minimal qualifications would find it increasingly difficult to get work.

He said many workers arriving in this country from Eastern Europe had better skills and a better work ethic than local people. One businessman told Mr Frost recently: "I had forgotten how much work one person could do in a day until I started employing Poles."

Mr Frost added that with 600,000 people from Eastern Europe working in this country there was a danger that UK people with no work ethic and no qualifications would become an "under class".