![]() Britain’s private-school configuration is, in short, distinctive. In the US there is a very small sector of non-sectarian private schools with high fees, but most private schools are, again, religious, with much lower fees than here. In France, private schools are mainly Catholic schools permitted to teach religion: the state pays the teachers and the fees are very low. In Germany, for instance, it is also low, but unlike in Britain is generously state-funded, more strongly regulated and comes with modest fees. They arrange things somewhat differently elsewhere: among affluent countries, Britain’s private‑school participation is especially exclusive to the rich. Overwhelmingly, pupils at private schools are rubbing shoulders with those from similarly well-off backgrounds. Indeed, the small number of income-poor families going private can only do so through other sources: typically, grandparents’ assets and/or endowment-supported bursaries from some of the richest schools. In short, access to private schooling is, for the most part, available only to wealthy households. For secondary school, and even more so sixth forms, the fees are appreciably higher. In 2018 the average day fees at prep schools were, at £13,026, around half the income of a family on the middle rung of the income ladder. ![]() The press focus tends to be on the great and historic boarding schools – such as Eton (basic fee £40,668 in 2018–19), Harrow (£40,050) and Winchester (£39,912) – but it is important to see the private sector in the less glamorous round, and stripped of the extra cost of boarding. A glance at the annual fees is relevant here. At the 99th rung – families with incomes upwards of £300,000 – six out of every 10 children are at private school. At every rung of the income ladder there are a small number of private-school attenders but it is only at the very top, above the 95th rung of the ladder – where families have an income of at least £120,000 – that there are appreciable numbers of private-school children. Only about 6% of the UK’s school population attend such schools, and the families accessing private education are highly concentrated among the affluent. What particularly defines British private education is its extreme social exclusivity. But education is not just another material asset: it is fundamental to creating who we are. Those with enough money are free to purchase and enjoy expensive holidays, cars, houses and meals. ![]() Its effects are deep, long-term and run from one generation to the next. It would be an almost immeasurable benefit if this were no longer the case. In Britain, private schools – including their fundamental unfairness – remain the elephant in the room. One of our fathers was a solicitor in Brighton, the other was an army officer rising to the rank of lieutenant-colonel we were both privately educated we both went to Oxford University our children have all been educated at state grammar schools in neither case did we move to the areas (Kent and south-west London) because of the existence of those schools and in recent years we have become increasingly preoccupied with the private-school issue, partly as citizens concerned with Britain’s social and democratic wellbeing, partly as an aspect of our professional work (one as an economist, the other as a historian). Yet in a name-calling culture, ever ready with the charge of hypocrisy, this reality is all too often ignored.įor the sake of avoiding misunderstanding, we should state briefly our own backgrounds and choices. That seems an obvious enough proposition. Everyone has to live – and make their choices – in the world as it is, not as one might wish it to be. ![]() Whether one has been privately educated, or has sent or is sending one’s children to private schools, or even if one teaches at a private school, there should be no barriers to taking part in that conversation. The existence in Britain of a flourishing private-school sector not only limits the life chances of those who attend state schools but also damages society at large, and it should be possible to have a sustained and fully inclusive national conversation about the subject. ![]()
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