An interesting piece in The Times this morning by erstwhile Historian and Master of Wellington College, Anthony Seldon. It calls for more initiative from independent schools to set up academies or otherwise build relationships with the maintained sector. However people view public schools, two things strike me as certain in the current debate. One is that the divide between independent and state schools is the main driver of inequality and diminishing social mobility in the UK today. The second is that public schools are still not doing enough to justify their tax breaks: as Seldon says, offering bursaries or needs-blind admissions is likely to be exploited by wily middle-class parents rather than benefit the talented working class kids that they’re supposed to help. So, how we proceed from here is open to debate, but I can at least applaud a Master of a top public school for highlighting the fact that his sector is not currently pulling its weight.
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3 comments
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May 19, 2008 at 2:04 pm
John
Actually, it’s false to say that the state-private divide is driving social immobility: the evidence suggests that middle-class kids do well wherever they go to school, and that parental income is the chief determinant of educational outcomes, regardless of school type. So the key is tackling inequality rather than private schools per se – not that the two are mutually exclusive, and one might help the other.
May 19, 2008 at 2:23 pm
Londoner
It is the same Anthony Seldon as Tony Blair’s biographer.
May 19, 2008 at 2:24 pm
colenotdole
That middle class kids do well wherever they go isn’t something I dispute. It’s the working class child who suffers by being locked into schools that their parents don’t have the education or resources to wangle them out of. Moreover, the exodus of middle class parents from the state system has deprived many schools of good governors/general parental involvement: I firmly believe that until we can co-opt these parents back into the system, giving state schools a pool of talent with which they can develop an ethos and a network of people that are keen to put time and effort into the school, we can only go so far.