Industry News
Private schools 'should not be blamed' for state sectors failings
Posted on 27th February 2008
Schools in the independent sector should not be criticised for offering smaller classes, demanding good behaviour and paying teacher staff adequately, an article in the Guardian Online has said today.
Instead, it is state schools that should be judged for failing to implement these measures, Anne Perkins wrote.
Her piece follows a story in the Guardian last week by David Kynaston, which said that children who attend top private schools such as Westminster are unfairly advantaged because they have a better chance of getting into Oxbridge and generally doing well in life.
But, as Ms Perkins points out, although Westminster and other independent schools that send a lot of students to top universities charge high fees, they are also very selective academically meaning that only Oxbridge-quality students enter in the first place.
Most other private schools only get a handful of children into Oxford or Cambridge each year, but all their pupils tend to work to the best of their ability thanks to their often superior teaching and learning facilities.
She argues that people need to look at "the failure of state schools to inspire and nurture their best talent" and concludes that "what is really wrong about private education providing a better education than state school is that state schools are not providing it".
Ms Perkins' views are shared by Richard Tice, the chairman of governors at Northampton Academy, who argued yesterday that state schools should be following the example of independent schools by offering a more "holistic" learning experience. 