EDUCATION Secretary Charles Clarke has signalled that the Government is prepared to abolish the 11-plus in Kent and Medway and end selection.

In a significantly tougher stance on grammar schools, Mr Clarke said today that authorities like Kent and Medway, which have kept the 11-plus, should now review their admissions procedures.

The Secretary of State for Education told MPs on the Government’s Education and Skills select committee that "selection regimes inhibited educational opportunities" for thousands of young people.

His comments have been taken as the clearest sign yet that the Government is now prepared to act over selection if it was proved they depressed standards across the board. With 33 grammars, Kent is the largest selective authority in the country.

Research by academics at York University, commissioned by the Labour Kent MP Dr Steve Ladyman, has shown pupils make more progress in areas with comprehensive schools than those in selective authorities.

Mr Clarke told councils that arguments over the future of grammar schools should centre on their effect on standards. If the 36 education authorities that still had grammars failed to end selection government policy could be reviewed.

He told MPs: "I would hope and believe that the authorities will look at their own practice from the point of view of education standards." His remarks have been condemned by grammar school heads but welcomed by anti-selection campaigners in Kent and Medway.

Keith Williams, head of the Rochester Math School, accused the Government of being inconsistent. “One of the main planks of Government policy is the specialist schools programme, which allows schools to select by aptitude. If they do not believe in the principle of selection, how can this be a consistent position?”

Martin Frey, of Kent group STEP – Stop The Eleven Plus – said: “We welcome these comments. We have always argued this is a matter of standards and the evidence in Kent is plain for all to see – it does not improve standards.”

Estelle Morris, who resigned as Secretary of State for Education six weeks ago, had already instituted a review of government policy on the procedures for parental ballots, allowing votes on selection.

In Kent, such a ballot would need the signatures of 50,000 parents to go ahead.