KENT'S education chiefs say they will do away with the 11-plus - if it helps to end the secondary schools admissions chaos encoutered by thousands of parents every year.

Instead they would like to implement continuous assessment of primary pupils' work as a way of securing places at grammar schools.

In a significant move, Cllr Paul Carter (Con), KCC's cabinet member for education, said: “If we can work out a fair way of doing that, I would have no problem with that [dropping the 11-plus].”

It would be a “very good way” of managing admissions if a process could be devised which made the process easier for parents, he added.

In the meantime, KCC is to press the Government to allow parents to apply for secondary school places after they know the outcome of the 11-plus test. The council says that would avoid a repetition of the chaos and confusion caused by this year’s arrangements.

The education authority says it is willing to trial a process of continuous assessment alongside the test as early as next year.

KM-fm spoke to the journalist who broke the story, the Kent Messenger Group's political editor Paul Francis...