The divide between public and private education is ever-growing. As public schools become
progressively oversubscribed whilst simultaneously underfunded, private sectors continue to flourish due to smaller class sizes and tax benefits.
The Covid-19 pandemic accentuated the divide between public and private schools due to those being most vulnerable to poverty, lack of resources and lack of parental support being those in public schools. As well as this, the governmental grading systems for GCSEs and A-Levels unequivocally benefitted those at private schools as the modification processes favoured those whose schools had performed better in the past.
Due to the increasing divide between public and private education sectors, there is a question surrounding the morality of disadvantaging children academically simply due to their economical backgrounds.
There has been a proposal of abolishment of private schools under a Labour government, endeavouring to ‘integrate’ private school students into the public sector and
‘redistribute’ their investments and properties. During PMQs in late November, Keir Starmer grilled Prime Minister Rishi Sunak over the tax benefits afforded to Private Schools.
Six million pounds of taxpayers money was awarded to private school, ‘Winchester College’ in Hampshire, where students pay over £11,000 per term to attend. Meanwhile, in public schools, a third of GCSE students fail maths and English, with only 43% managing to get above a grade 4 in these subjects. With such alarming statistics, Keir Starmer questioned whether that £6,000,000 of taxes would be better spent on public schools, which has led the public to engage with the debate.
Theoretically, the abolishment of private schools would allow more funding and support for public schools – thus benefiting all students rather than an elite few. Moreover, the academic separation between those in private schools versus those in public schools is increasing year by year. Those attending private schools are likely to get up to two grades higher than their equal public-school peers.
Due to the likelihood of higher attainment at private schools, these students are more likely
to get into elitist universities, such as Oxbridge, which socially gives them an advantage whilst job-seeking.
As the knock-on effects of attending a public school statistically follow on into adulthood and onto jobseekers, there needs to be a re-evaluation of the distribution of funding to allow equal opportunities. Being academically disadvantaged due to economic background only perpetuates the divide between the privileged and the disadvantaged. But how do we solve this issue?
By abolishing the private school sector, there is an assumption that the parents of those in private schools will turn their financial support and attention to public schools as an endeavour to improve their children’s academic progress. This would result in public establishments improving and benefitting all. However, there is a worry that this would cause public schools to be even more stretched and that it could lead to favouritisms within public schools.
One of the biggest issues within the public-school sector is the lack of teaching staff. Statistically, 13% of teachers quit the profession a year after qualifying. The decrease in the retention rate of teaching staff, along with the decrease in graduates entering the profession, there is a teaching staff crisis. Due to this crisis, the ratio of teaching staff to students in a public primary school is 20:1. This ratio is astronomical and leads to a large number of students slipping through the cracks as they don’t receive the 1:1 support that they need.
The solution to this problem is a catch-22, the pressure put onto teachers due to the staffing issue leads to more wanting to leave the profession. Many teachers are overloaded with responsibility because there is no one else to fulfil those roles. By making schools a healthier workplace with funding and support, the teacher retention rate will increase.
By abolishing private schools, there will be more teachers looking to work in public schools, however there will also be more students in these schools. Without a re-evaluation of staffing support and financial support for public educational institutions, dismantling the private education sector will only exacerbate the issues.
Truly, the only resolution for the academic injustices faced by those from underprivileged
backgrounds is a governmental intervention to improve the educational resources; staffing issues; social-economical issues; and financial issues. By resorting to the abolishment of private schools, the government risk palming off financial responsibility onto parents rather than systematic change and improvement within the sector.
It is clear that a great number of our children are being disadvantaged in the school system, and with the effects of Covid-19 on education set to impact our economy for ’65 years’, how much longer can we continue to allow our next generations to be let down by fundamental institutions that should set them up for progress, not failure?
Edited by Caitlin Hart