Education Overhaul: Private Schools

It was announced this morning that plans to force private schools to give free places to poor pupils were being ‘torn up’ after a court ruling which ordered the Charity Commission to scrap its ‘controversial’ guidance.  Although I believe the guidance was a step in the right direction based on the right principles, I don’t think it was ever going to be viable and I am not surprised that the ISC (Independent Schools Council) managed to overturn it. However, I think something has to be done about private schools and if I was Michael Gove, I would be planning a complete overhaul of how the education system works in the UK.

This post is just going to focus on private schools(note: I will be using independent and private interchangeably throughout this post), but I plan to return to the rest of the education system in the near future, including posts on faith and single-sex schools, universities and a conclusion in which I outline my solution to the problems I uncover.

Now, here’s the problem I have with private schools; instead of allowing the best to reach the top, they keep the richest at the top. 35% of the MPs currently sitting in parliament were privately educated. This is over 1 in 3, and although this does not sound like a massive figure as an individual statistic, when you consider that only 18% of British sixth formers study for their A-Levels at independent schools, you can see the advantage that comes from being privately educated. If you focus into the very top of government, we can see that our current Prime Minister, Deputy PM, and Chancellor of the Exchequer all went to independent schools, but not only this, they actually paid more per year for their education than the average salary in the UK. Both Cameron and Osborne attended Eton College, where the fee for the academic year 2010-2011 was just under £30,000.

It’s not just MPs where private education can give you a massive head start in life. 84% of senior judges in England and Wales were privately educated and 54% of journalism jobs are taken by former private school pupils. The Sutton Trust found that 53% of the top 500 leading figures in the UK in politics, law, medicine, business and journalism were educated at independent, fee-paying schools even though only 7% of school-age children are educated privately.

Like many things in life, there is a vicious circle involved here because the rich send their children to private schools, their children get to the top of their respective area, they become rich and they send their children to private school etc. etc. Meanwhile, the poor continue to be poorly educated by the state and despite in many cases having the ability, they never become rich enough to be able to get their own families to independent schools.

It is no wonder with the education system in place in this country that Britain has the fastest growing gap between rich and poor in any developed country.

Step 1: Abolish Independent Schools.

Step 2: I will explore in the next couple of weeks!