Which principle does the author's final sentence rely on?
Supporters of selective schools say they give clever children from poor homes a route that comprehensive schools do not. The claim is attractive, but the evidence it needs is missing. For selection to help the poor, selective schools would have to admit many poor children, and in practice entry tests favour those whose parents can pay for coaching. The result is that selective schools tend to enrol fewer disadvantaged pupils than their local areas contain. Meanwhile, the schools left behind lose their strongest pupils and, with them, much of their academic atmosphere. It may be that some selected children do better than they otherwise would. But a system should be judged by what happens to all its pupils, and judged that way, selection is hard to defend on the ground of social mobility.
Answer and explanation
Correct answer: E. A policy should be assessed by its effect on every pupil and not only on those it selects
- Step 1: The sentence says a system should be judged by what happens to all its pupils.
- Step 2: That is a principle of assessing the whole, not a part.
Answer
A policy should be assessed by its effect on every pupil and not only on those it selects.
Why not the others: Benefit to the gifted, parental approval, cost and teacher popularity are not mentioned as standards.
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