.. to think we should scrap private schools?

[katnyps]

How can we ever have an equal opportunities society when people with more money can pay for their children to have a better education?

I know that there are exceptions to the rule, and great teachers in publicly funded schools, but I get the impression that influential roles in society are disproportionately represented by people paid for education... or am I wrong about this too?

I believe that Finland has one of the best (internationally recognised) education system in the world and (apologies if I'm not quite right here, but broadly speaking) that it is actually illegal there to charge for education?

@NoOpinionNoProblem

In many professions it is about who you know, not what you know and nothing to do with competence or education level.

This isn’t true as you have stated it. In most professions you do need to be of an appropriate educational standard. The difference isn’t so much who you know it is actually what you know.

You know
-about internships
-what degree to do
-where to do that degree
-what the job is really about
-what some of the unwritten rules are

That is the real advantage. I work in the City, if my DC decide to do the same they will know more than someone with the same qualifications but no inside information (pun intended).

Bold fail!

Taking away the option to give your children opportunities is a communist mindset. I don’t want to live in a country where that freedom is denied. To have the choice to aspire to greater things.
I really don’t know how an “equal education for all” would work - the brighter children would be slowed down by those not willing to learn. So should they all be forced to be “average”?

Of course it's not a communist mindset. When did any school have the goal of making every child the same? A good education is about letting individuals flourish - giving them opportunities, as you put it. Children might be highly intelligent, they might be practical, they might be good at art, science, other subjects. They might not be academic at all, but still deserve an education that helps them to find a job/role in life that suits them. They might have special needs that their school is currently unable to cater for.

It might mean having a range of schools or having schools that can cater for a range of children. I think around 93% of children are state educated. They deserve a well-funded state education system that gives them opportunities as well as keeping them safe. As a country we deserve a system that allows talent and intellect to flourish. We are a long way from that at the moment. If everyone had to use the state system, I think it would focus the minds of those in power on making it fit for purpose.

I am against scraping private schools but some of the state education needs to really improve. We are in an area where government spends lots of money to improve things but the progress is very slow. You will often hear that it is down to families and kids background but I disagree..how do other countries do it? I was born and brought up abroad...I believe It is the system and expectations here which trickles downs. Poor areas... poor expectations from kids.

Life is not equal though

@katnyps

After reading the majority of these comments I'm now googling "how much does private school cost?"

Have you changed your mind?

*I am lucky that our local state schools are ok.

Just ok?

Say you close private schools. Fine.

Why do you think you will decrease the gap? Wealthier parents will still put their children in nice area schools - it will be their catchment anyway. School funding being what it is, A LOT rely on parents contribution and donations. Even in state schools, why do you think the PTAs are working so hard to scrap a few hundred £ here and there?

Some schools will end up with much better facilities, much better resources and opportunities.

If you try to cap the donations, and send the extra to other schools, they will simply stop and parents will donate to after school providers instead...

Parents do the best for their own children. Private or state, you give when it benefits your child.

Went to private, sent kids to state. I could have got where I am today by going to the local grammar, but one of my kids has been damaged by their state education and none of them enjoy it.

Private-public isn't the only issue. I don't think formal education of any description is a good way to spend your childhood. If I had my time again, mine would all be homeschooled.

Scrap the private schools and people would move house to be in the catchment for the the best state school in the area, this I assume would then drive property prices higher and create schools based on affordability.

I'm not sure scrapping private schools would work personally and yes my dc attend them.

I would just like to add that I was brought up in a country with a communism regime at the time. One thing I would say is that despite all of the bad things which I am sure happened (I was too young to be aware of it), all kids had the same chances to do well. If you were bright, you could easily become a doctor or a lawyer and it did not matter what your parents did. I don’t think this is the case here.

Op Edinburgh City Council education department would have a collective panic attack if you did this!😄

The difference isn’t so much who you know it is actually what you know

I think this is a bit disingenuous. A friend's daughter was at Stowe. She did an internship with a company owned by an old Stowe student and arranged by the school. Another old student mentored her. I used to work for a man who'd been to a public school, I forget which one, but we had a succession of work experience students and juniors, either from his old school or his friends' children. I know of plenty of other similar examples - very much a question of who you know. This is the reality for many young people trying to get a foot in the door in the most popular or lucrative sectors.

@LetItGoGo
Haha are there a lot of independent schools in Edinburgh?

See, I always had the impression that in the UK we did level out the information gap so that it didn’t just reside in the minds of the already privileged. We had library resources, open conversations about industries, industry associations and talks. If you didn’t come from privilege, you had to do the ground work to get you up to speed (if that is the right term) and then once in a company, it was up to you. Lots of ordinary, state educated people have achieved this over the years - what private schools sell is the perception of ease of entry (imv). Connections come at a cost, too. And obv, freelancing/interning/etc are all with hidden costs of rent. I think there is an illusion at play here - particularly in places like London. How many writers/artists/journalists/musicians said that was their job when they were paying their rent by working in a bar/waitressing/on benefits? Privilege does exist- I don’t want to suggest it doesn’t but it has its own cost, too (expectations/etc).

Much as I am trying to avoid such threads after accused of being drunk ( no kidding)

My children go to Private school. I live in a very affluent area.

My children come into a catchment for a brilliant state senior school and the best 6th form college in the country..

Our catchment includes many wealthy parents who laugh at those of us who pay privately.

I have other reasons.

However I'm not taking up those two places.

By all means scrap private schools. I will then be forced to take up the State school two places other children may have been given.

Let's just add it to the bill

Just to be clear by 'add it to the bill' I mean the taxpayers bill.

Well I also think we should all pay more tax - guess I'm just a tiny bit socialist!

This thread is seriously depressing reading. People actually saying they don’t care about equality

@Neverland2013

I would just like to add that I was brought up in a country with a communism regime at the time. One thing I would say is that despite all of the bad things which I am sure happened (I was too young to be aware of it), all kids had the same chances to do well. If you were bright, you could easily become a doctor or a lawyer and it did not matter what your parents did. I don’t think this is the case here.

Why on earth don't you think its the same here

Whatever our views on private education, it will not be abolished. The Human Rights Act would be invoked. Even if that did not apply, there would be private tutors, people taking children out of formal schooling, and children being educated abroad (boarding school in my opinion is far worse than day schools for most children).

Taking away charitable status or things such as requiring a percentage of children on free or reduced fee places seems a better option.

Why does it even bother people? If state schools are great, then no problem surely.

Tony Blair went to Fettes College in Edinburgh so maybe that’s why Labour didn’t abolish private schools either.

@Neverland2013, based on my reading during a degree in politics in the 1970s, I encountered the 'nomenklatura'. Was there no inherited dynastic succession in your former Communist country? There was certainly such a thing in the Soviet Union. It centred on cities, and embraced cultural and professional opportunity; guess what, there were many more opportunities for the children of the apparatchiks than there would have been for a child growing up on a collective farm in Moldova or Ukraine!

@katnyps

Well I also think we should all pay more tax - guess I'm just a tiny bit socialist!

Good for you. What's wrong with being a bit socialist? I think raising taxes to pay for better services benefits us all.