Recorded on Saturday 19 October, 2013. as part of the School Fights strand at the Battle of Ideas festival
The place of independent schools in Britain’s education
landscape has never been so intensely debated. According to Martin
Stephen, former high master of St Paul’s School, two of the three main
political parties hate independent schools ‘to the core of their being’,
while the Conservatives are run by so many public schoolboys that they
cannot afford to extend ‘the merest hand of friendship’ to such schools
without being caricatured by the media. But do private schools protest
too much about ‘posh prejudice’? The 7% of pupils who attend fee-paying
schools go on to dominate Oxbridge places and elite professions such as
law, the media and science. Are those who defend private schools
prepared to defend the perpetuation of such inequality on the grounds of
individual freedom?
Or is it not true that independent schools are full of ‘toffs’ when a
third of pupils in schools in the Headmasters’ and Headmistresses’
Conference (of independent schools) have bursary support? Might the
growing popularity of private schools be an indictment of failing
comprehensive schools? Is it right that parents who make sacrifices for
their children’s education are made to feel such an outlay is morally
questionable? Is it necessarily wrong to pay for education? And when so
many politicians across the political divide have enjoyed the benefits
of a private education, from Eton boys David Cameron, Oliver Letwin and
Boris Johnson to supposed class warriors Ed Balls, Harriett Harman and
Chuka Umunna, it is hypocritical of them to distance themselves from the
independent sector and seek to undermine it? Is opposition to private
schools motivated as much by a stale left-wing prejudice against
aspiration as a real commitment to public provision?
What if one values both equality and choice? Are these ideals
hopelessly incompatible when it comes to the debate about private
education? And where do new models of schooling that combine private and
public provisions, such as Free Schools and Academies, fit into the
debate? Is opposition to private schools just part of a more general
hostility to private institutions? Or is it essential to forging a fair
education system that benefits all pupils?
Dean for European Engagement and professor of philosophical and religious education, University of Glasgow
Politics teacher and head of social science, Queen's School, Bushey; blogger at Fans for Freedom
