Should we abolish private schools?

A disproportionate number of people who occupy the top jobs across the UK – from the prime minister and leading politicians to judges and entertainers – were privately educated.

Campaigners who think this situation has gone on too long are asking why we have private schools and whether it is time to get rid of them. Maya Goodfellow explores the case for abolition

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#privateschools #education #stateschools #school

[grapefives]

Why not just make state schools better?

[grossherman]

Bring state schools up not private schools down.

[ASLUHLUHC]

I'd rather the government improved equality of opportunity by improving state schools, rather than reducing the peoples' freedom (which is pretty serious in any scenario) and abolishing private education.

[josephwesthill]

It seems like when people think of private schools, they only think of Boris Johnson, David Cameron, and Eton. Rather narrow representation.

[xenophon]

Yeah, well, the idea of freedom seems to be completely lost in your presentation. Parents who can will always seek the best education for their kids.
The proper way to deal with this is have good public schools, period. We have private schools in Germany, and they do not play any such role. Public schools are simply good enough.

[hywelfarrowwilton]

My local secondary school is awful and I have learning difficulties and I would have not gotten the support that I needed to pass my exams if I had not gone to a private school.

[creativesource]

Abolishing private schools wont make state schools any better. It worked in Finland with a tiny population but they also reformed the education system.

The standard of State schools should improve to meet private school standards so parents stop spending to send their kids there.

[kystoks]

when you go to a private school and still watch this to see how people view you

[milesthomas]

I like how every clip of "private school facilities/buildings/pupils" are the most extreme examples, those rowing machines, horses, long coat and boater hats is what a tiny minority of these schools actually have, it's not like Hogwarts and St Trinians it's not much different to state schools

[barbirelle]

why abolishing? just change the public system

[thed-n-tshow]

It’s not the children’s fault they was born in to money, that’s just how the world works. Just bring up the state schools.

[dotsgrey]

One very considerable benefit to independent schooling, which wasn't mentioned here, is the lack of curriculum constriction. Any thinking person can recognise that if all children learn the same narrow elements of a the same narrow set of subjects, then you create a kind of mono-intelligence. A unified system could arguably, therefore, be stronger if individual schools and teachers could select their subjects and content.

A good example is political illiteracy in the electorate, which makes voters susceptible to demagoguery. Political science, psychology, economics, philosophy and sociology; these are arguably the most important subjects in creating useful, thoughtful members of society, yet are almost completely absent in the state curriculum.

[SamirSingh-]

Hey Britain, why not just improve your public schools 🙄

[georgehennon]

We should raise state schools not kick public schools

[pepsi]

Abolition would likely quicken a "brain-drain." The winners in abolition would end up being foreign boarding schools. These foreign boarding schools would see a jump in demand, as well as a jump in the supply of some of world's best academic resources. That's all if the courts would even allow such a national-wide policy.

[reinhardtscheepers]

Before you throw out the baby with the bath water, I think it would be advantageous to first identify exactly what is wrong with the British state school system. Where are they falling short and what can be done to address these problems. I think it would be better to first get the state schools performing optimally before we should consider abolishing the public and private schools.

[rosem]

I went to an academy where teachers had to buy their own glue sticks for students. Dont tell me that is fair.

[nichootin]

having grown up in England while attending a private school and then moving to Norway to attend a skandi type public school i can whole heartily say abolish private schools. the private schools system allows for the rich and powerful to live in their own bubble with no connection to the real world from a young age. Ensuring that everyone has to go to the same school also forces the rich and powerful to allocate more resources to public schools as their own kids will actually be attending them.

[ForbiddenHero]

I just got accepted into City of London School for boys, and i'm poor believe me- single mum, works on minimum wage, in debt, she cannot even speak english, she works 6 days a week in a factory 9 or more hours per day except saturday which is 4 hours. I'm going to school in Dagenham, and im not white british (eastern european/ lithuanian). All of that and i can say just how welcoming at least city of london school was, cant speak for other schools, but they were great and considerate and importantly didnt see me as any different, btw im going on a fully paid bursary. This also true for eton, my friend a Tanzanian, got accepted there, and the way they do it there is they only look at class to see who they need to pay for is after all the tests and interviews, ensuring only the most capable go there and is not based on class- of course you can just choose to pay and not go through the way he did (Orwell award). I'm very excited.

[DevonPixie]

I am a child of a single parent mother, grew up in poverty, had very little growing up. I worked hard and when people said I couldn’t because of class or my background I just did it anyway. I earn double what my parents earn, I went to uni, and still harbour greater ambitions. The only limit on me is me