Effectiveness of different types of schools
The existence of private schools undermines the principle of equality of educational opportunity, because social class
background rather than simply ability becomes the key to success in education. They only exist to help the wealthy
and powerful pass on their wealth and power from one generation to the next. Private education should therefore be
abolished.
Around 7% of the school population have exercised a choice in the education market to opt out of the free, state
funded school system altogether and attended the fee-paying private sector of education – the independent schools.
Walford (2003) points out, there is a wide diversity of schools in the independent sector, some of which are so small
that they are almost ‘better thought of as parents home schooling their children’. As Walford says there are ‘schools
that practice Transcendental Meditation and Buddhism; others that serve the Seventh Day Adventists, Sikhs or Jews.
There are more than 60 evangelical Christian schools and more than 50 Muslims schools’.
Many of these schools start up because of parents expressing their choice of school and while such schools may
meet parental wishes, they do not necessarily lead to the elite careers associated with some of the most prestigious
independent schools.
The public schools – private schools
Walford ‘Entry to such schools has been seen as a passport to academic success, to high-status universities and to
prosperous and influential careers.’
The existence of the public schools has significant implications for equality of educational opportunity. This is
because having the money to access such as schooling gives a huge advantage compared to those who lack such
resources, and makes even more pronounced the inequalities in education opportunity which have been considered
throughout this chapter.
The public schools are a small group of independent schools belonging to what is called the ‘Headmasters’ and
Headmistresses’ Conferences (HMC). Pupils at these schools are largely the children of wealthier upper and upper
middle class parents. These are long established private schools, many dating back hundreds of years, which charge
fees running into thousands of pounds.
For secondary age students in 2014, annual fees for day students averaged around £13,500, and for boarders (live in)
£28,500. The two most famous boys’ public schools are probably Eton and Harrow (boarding fees around £35,000 a
year, plus extras, in 2014/2015) and many of the ‘top people’ in this country have attended these or other public
schools. A public school education means parents can almost guarantee their children will have well-paid future
careers bringing them power and status in society.
The case for independent schools
The defenders of privation education point to the smaller class sizes and better facilities of the public schools,
compared to those found in the state system, which means children have a much better chance of getting into
university, especially the top universities such as Oxford and Cambridge.
The Sutton Trust (2011) found that independent schools pupils are nearly 7 times as likely as pupils in comprehensive
schools to be accepted into Oxford and Cambridge, rising to 55 time more likely than the most disadvantaged
students who qualify for free school meals (FSM), and more than twice as likely to be accepted into the thirty top-
ranked British universities (and 22 times more likely than those on FSM).
Many public schools are also selective schools, through entrance examinations, so the average ability of students
tends to be higher than in state schools, helping to maintain high academic standards, which is reinforced by high
levels of parental interest (particularly as they are paying customers). Many defend private education on the
grounds that parents should have the right to spend their money as they wish and improving their children’s life
chances through choosing for their children to be educated outside the state system is a sensible way of doing so,
particularly if they regard their local schools as inadequate or ineffective for their children. Teachers’ salaries also
tend to be higher in the private sector, especially in the public schools, and this may mean they attract better
qualified and more experienced teachers than the state sector.
The case against independent schools
Many remain opposed to private education, arguing that most people do not have the money to purchase a private
education for their children, and it is wrong that the children of the well-off should be given even more advantages
in education than the poor. Despite many of the schools catering only for the well off, they have traditionally had
the same tax subsidies and benefits through charitable status to help wealthy parents reduce their tax bills. This
charitable status has been estimated to be work 5-10% on the average school fee (Palfreyman, 2003), or up to about
£3000 per pupil each year – an amount so generous that in 2006 the Charities Act was amended so that charities
providing education had to demonstrate wider public benefit, such as offering more access to those who could not
afford high fees and clear evidence of support to neighbouring state schools, in order to continue to qualify as
charities.
The taxpayer also pays the cost of training the teachers in these schools, since they attend state-run universities and
colleges.
The quality of teaching in independent schools is often no better than in state-run comprehensives. However,
classes tend to be smaller than in state schools, allowing more individual attention, and the schools often have
better resources and facilities.
Eton College in 2013 had assets estimated at £275 million, with the added advantage of charitable status. These
investments and fee income allow Eton to spend in the region of £25-30,000 per year on each student, compared to
the sum of around £6,500 spent on the average state school students in 2012-13. The opponents of private
education argue more money should be spent on improving the state system so everyone has an equal chance in
education.
Research has shown that, even when children go to private school, especially the public schools, get worse results
than children who go to comprehensive schools, they still get better jobs in the end. This suggests that the fact of
attending a public school is itself enough to secure them good jobs, even if their qualifications are not quite as good
as those of students from comprehensives.
Elite education and elite jobs
A public school education remains a prime qualification for the elite jobs in society – that small number of jobs in the
country which involve holding a great deal of power and privilege. Although only about 7% of the population have
attended independent schools, many of the top positions in government, in the civil service, medicine, the law, the
media, the Church of England, and industry, banking and commerce are held by privately educated school students.
In many cases, even well qualified candidates from state schools will stand a poor chance of getting such jobs if
competing with public school pupils. The route into the elite jobs is basically through a public school and Oxford and
Cambridge universities, where around 40% of students come from private schools.
This establishes the ‘old boys’ network’, a social network providing valuable social capital, where those in positions
of power recruit others who come from the same social class background and who have been to the same public
schools and universities as themselves. This shows on aspect of the clear relationship which exists between wealth
and power in modern Britain, and how being able to afford a public school education can lead to a position of power
and influence in society.
A public school education therefore means well-off parents can almost guarantee their children will have well paid
future careers bringing them levels of power and status in society similar to those of their parents. This undermines
the principle of equality of education opportunity, and any idea that Britain might be a meritocracy. This is because
social class background and ability to pay fees, rather than simply academic ability, become the key to success in
education. Not all children of the same ability have the same chance of paying for this route to education and career
success. This would seem to demonstrate in a particularly stark way Bowles and Gintis’s Marxist idea that the
education system simply confirms and legitimises social class of origin as social class of destination.
Item A
Where the privately educated end up working in the UK (2014)
All pupils attending private schools 2013 7
Top barristers 68
Top judges 70
Top solicitors 55
Senior armed forces office 62
Top diplomats 53
Top civil servants 55
Members of the House of Lords 50
Top 100 media personnel 54
Top doctors 51
Leaders of FTSE 100 top companies 54
All members of Parliament (2010) 35
Conservative MPs 54
Liberal Democrat MPs 40
Labour MPs 15
Conservative/Lib Dem MPs holding government as ministers 60
Bishops in House of Lords 60
Sutton Trust; Elite Britain, Social Mobility and Child Poverty Commission, 2014.
