British teenagers have plummeted in world rankings for reading, maths and science in international figures (British pupils falling in world rankings).
In Maths, fifteen-year-olds have fallen from 8th to 24th place in the past six years.
In Reading their ranking has dropped from 7th to 17th.
In Science from 4th to 14th.
The collapse of parts of the UK state education system can be traced back at least as far as Margaret Thatcher, who closed down huge numbers of good grammar schools.
Thatcher's term as Education Secretary "was marked by support for several proposals for more local education authorities to close grammar schools and adopt comprehensive secondary education." (Margaret Thatcher - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia)
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