It is hardly surprising that Labour politicians have found it hard to embrace the notion that schools differ from one another by specialism. For over twenty years, the introduction of comprehensive schools involved a series of dirty local fights and, in many of them, those who favoured the comprehensive approach were both outgunned and outwitted.

As a result, comprehensive education was typically introduced in areas where Labour controlled the local councils and where there was likely to be minimal opposition from established schools and from parents. The result was that comprehensive schools often came to be seen as second-rate because they served disadvantaged populations. It was then easy for opposing politicians to make mincemeat of the comprehensive dream. And, eventually, the label ‘comprehensive’ ceased to mean equality of opportunity but was seen, instead, as a baseline by which provision could be measured. The original notions of fairness and entitlement came to imply that everyone would get the same poor deal.

It was the mantra that the comprehensive schools had failed which facilitated the introduction of the grant-maintained sector in the early 1990s. The initial success of these well-funded schools with their freedom from local authority control and financial constraints was a crushing blow for Labour’s education policies and, once in office, the party had to adapt. It was unthinkable in electoral terms that the old battles should be restarted so Labour had to find a new way which would not only be acceptable to the electorate but would also bridge the wide division between the grant-maintained schools and the local education authorities they had left.

The problem was clouded by the fact that the new government now had to deal with a specialist school sector that included the original grant-maintained schools plus a number of technology colleges and language colleges spawned by the City Technology College initiative. It is worth remembering that a year earlier Gillian Shephard had offered these schools 15% selection by aptitude plus selection by interview. For new Labour, the wrong form of intervention could have had serious political repercussions.

In the end, the government followed the pragmatic route and decided to develop the specialist system. This was a key moment. It was the point where the notion of diversification through specialism first entered Labour Party policy and it was engendered by events and political necessity rather than principle. That explains why, for some voters, there is still little difference between diversification and inequality. Specialist schools were originally designed to be selective schools and it has to be recognised that they are preferentially funded quite apart from the benefits they reap from sponsorship.

Given this history, it was not surprising that there was a period shortly after his appointment when even Charles Clarke appeared to be opposing the concept of the specialist school as elitist. However, since that time he has taken a different view - and protected his egalitarian principles - on the basis that all schools can eventually be specialist.

There are now almost 1500 specialist schools, including just over 500 technology schools, 190 language academies, 230 sports schools, 230 arts schools, eighty-one business and enterprise colleges, seventy-seven mathematics and computing schools, fourteen engineering colleges, 121 science colleges and ten schools with more than one specialisation. All local education authorities with secondary schools have a specialist school and 38% of secondary schools are specialist. There is a further milestone which is to have 2000 specialist schools by 2006 and that looks easily achievable.

95% of the schools are comprehensive (only fifty-seven are selective) and around 6% of the comprehensives make use of the right to select up to 10% of pupils by aptitude in their specialisation. Schools can now additionally specialise in music, the humanities and rural studies. For the humanities option, schools will specialise in at least one of history, geography or English. The introduction of a rural studies specialism caused some debate about whether schools had to be in rural locations to apply for this change of status. It was decided that city schools with farms would be eligible!

The combined specialism is a new idea. There are now schools that specialise in science and engineering, mathematics and computing, science and the performing arts, and engineering and technology. They receive two allocations of funding.

The application process is unchanged. Any secondary school can apply by raising £50,000 from private sector sponsorship (less for smaller schools), preparing a four-year development plan focused on improvements in teaching and learning and by offering to build community links. In return they receive a one off capital grant of £100,000 and an additional £123 per pupil for, initially, a four-year period. This is an excellent deal for the schools.

The outcomes are modest. The specialist school sector managed to achieve 54% of A*-C grades at GCSE in 2002 and the three year gains for some schools have been particularly encouraging but this is evolution rather than revolution. OFSTED has also been critical of the fact that specialist schools are typically not delivering on their community programmes or developing effective local partnerships.