to wonder why so many foreigners send their kids to prep schools?

[educationobserver]

Someone I know mentioned this to me earlier today. Apparently you will find loads of people who are originally from Asia and Africa - not all of them rich of course but some going the extra mile

Because many of our state schools in this country are dire?

ashamedandconfused I don't have stats to back this up but in my experience/observation there is actually a disproportionately large number of ethnic minority chikdren (in relation to their % numbers in the British population overall) in independent prep schools - not so much the senior sector.

They seem to be largely Asian (mostly Indian but also some Pakistani etc) and lots and lots of Chinese, with Africans to a lesser degree, with only a very small representation of kids from Caribbean background.

I think the simple reason is that Indian/Chinese children are well documented as being the highest achieving ethnic groups in education in Britain and their parents take their children's education extremely seriously. They will pay (and make huge sacrifices if necessary) to send them to prep schools as 'grammar crammers' because there is a greater emphasis on priming for/teaching towards the 11 plus, whereas most state schools have a very laissez-faire attitude to 11 plus. The numbers of ethnic minority children in independent education appears to drop off at senior school level - preumably because so many of them manage to secure a place at a decent grammar school? One look at the official stats on ethnic breakdown in state grammars would tell you how it compares to the ethnic breakdown in that wider educational authority or geographical area.

Education is highly valued amongst Asians (ie originally of Asian sub conitnent heritage). They believe that it is worth making sacrifices and going without in the interest of providing their children with the best start in life. My parents struggled to put me and my sister through private school with considerable personal sacrifice - I asked them recently and they said they would not do anything differently. My parents now have a very comfortable lifestyle as do my family and my sister's.

And yes, I am a Doctor and my sister is a successful solicitor. there was never any pressure on me to choose medicine. I was actually considering law but then changed last minute.

Agree with fellatio - also prep schools can be a lot more flexible - so for example, the family move here for 2 years, then move to work in Saudi/India for a year and then come back and it isnt a problem as it would be in the state sector.