Conservative education policy was at the centre of further dispute last night after the party’s education spokesman called for more selection in secondary schools.

Less than a week after triggering a grassroots revolt by arguing against selection and blaming grammar schools for holding back children from poor families, David Willetts said that he wanted to make it easier for specialist schools to select pupils.

At present, schools that develop specialisms in certain subject areas are allowed to select up to 10 per cent of pupils in certain subjects, provided they select by aptitude, not ability – a distinction that few in the education world understand.

They may also select only pupils with an aptitude in languages, performing and visual arts and sport. Although 80 per cent of state secondaries have achieved specialist school status, only 6 per cent take advantage of the possibility of selecting pupils.

Mr Willetts said that he wanted to do away with the distinction and to extend the range of subjects covered by selection in specialist schools.

It was ridiculous, he said, that specialist schools could select pupils who were good at languages, but not those who were good at music.

“We would get rid of the distinction between aptitude and ability to make more sense of their ability to select,” he said.

He denied, however, that this represented a route towards full selection, as it would only represent 10 per cent of places.

“Ninety per cent of places would not be affected,” Mr Willetts said.

He added that both he and David Cameron, the party leader, would not shift on their policy of opposing the creation of any more grammar schools. Mr Willetts insisted that his opposition to the creation of new grammar schools and his support for selection in specialist schools were existing Conservative policies.

But his comments are unlikely to go down well with certain sections of his party, which seized on his comments last week to express discontent with the direction of the party’s education policies.

Mr Willetts made his comments as Mr Cameron moved the focus of his education policy back to a more traditional Conservative agenda with plans to toughen discipline in schools.

The move by Mr Cameron, in a speech planned for June, will be seen by critics of his position on grammar schools as an olive branch by reverting to a more familiar Tory message on school discipline. This follows in part from his brief experience as a teaching assistant at a school in Hull last week.

“David is actually quite a traditionalist on education,” a well-placed Tory source said. “He came back from Hull very interested in discipline.”

But he will return to the issue at the heart of the row over selection, by arguing that self-governing academy schools can be used to spread good discipline to all state schools. Contracts signed between ministers and groups running academies could legitimately be written to include an emphasis on discipline, which should raise expectations among parents and put pressure on other state schools in the area to follow suit, a senior Conservative said.

Other schools policies being considered by the Tories include an emphasis on smaller secondary schools, a return to traditional teaching methods such as phonics, and reversing the closure of special schools. One consequence would be to provide alternative provision for children with special needs whose behaviour can be disruptive.

Citizenship classes introduced into the curriculum by David Blunkett while he was Home Secretary to promote British identity may be scrapped or merged into lessons on the history of Parliament and other British institutions.

Public opinion on grammar schools is not at all clear cut. According to an ICM poll for the National Grammar Schools Association in March last year, 70 per cent of adults would support the setting up of new grammar schools.

Another ICM poll, however, this time for a pro-grammar schools leaflet from the Centre for Policy Studies last June found that only 39 per cent of adults would choose a selective school for their own child, but 58 per cent would opt for a mixed-ability school.

Times Recommends

• The Times celebrates its 225th birthday
• Heath discussed IMF loan during 1974 crisis
• Britain’s loneliest café opens for business