And you know this because you've seen it happen? In NL, pre-selection happens at 12 years but actual specialisation doesn't happen until 15 years old. That's three years for children to switch tracks, try things and see what works best for them. And even then, students can pursue an upgrade track after graduation that would still grant them access to university at the cost of an extra year of secondary schooling (which also gives them an extra year of maturity, which often also helps).

I don't know how it is in the UK, but your comment strikes me as a typical boogieman from someone who hasn't actually seen the system in action.

Yes, this happens. My son could not take calculus in high school because he was mislabeled in 8th grade. The 8th-grade decision has had an impact on his college career.

The school system has as a track of classes leading up to calculus. A student can jump forward on the track by passing a test on the next class in the track.

Because there were other demands on my son's time, it was not practical for him to learn a year's worth of material outside of school time.

Could be worse… could be the (pre-1976) Eleven-Plus Exam…

Agreed, that would suck. Maybe allow retesting in the following grade if the student feels they've been mislabeled?

But isn’t it unfair to saddle minorities with more generational debt by getting them to attend universities? I’m being snarky here but also legitimately asking. My student loan payments resume in a month because Biden doesn’t care about non-Boomers.