Shouldnt equal education be available to everyone?

[angell84]

I have just returned to the U.K. after a very long period abroad, and I am shocked at the school system in the U.K. I lived in another country where equal education was available to everyone.

Why do we have comprehensive, and independant and fee paying schools in the U.K? Why is better education given to those with money who can afford it? Shouldn't equal education be available to everyone?
The discrimination in education - is shocking in the U.K.

OP in your opening post you stated: "I lived in another country where equal education was available to everyone."

What is this country and why haven't you named it despite many posters asking you which one it is?

There are some countries that don't have many independent schools but I can't think of any that don't have any at all.

The OP may be interested to know that some studies suggest that state schools perform better in countries where there is a strong independent sector.

Either it’s Finland or she’s making it up.

Yes equal education should be available to all. The system here is terrible and getting worse.

Personally I think the worst gap is between state schools themselves. Depending on where you live the standard can vary in a big way.

flowerylamp - might that be because there are so many of them? It would be hard to achy consistency with 24, 500 schools in England- let alone rest of U.K. There is no central oversight and huge variations in funding, governance autonomy. A free school in a new build with additional funding , in a rich area is going to be very different from a comprehensive with very poor facilities somewhere more challenged.

To be fair I've worked several years ago in a pastoral setting previously in a 'failing school', in a very deprived area. No amount of extra funding can facilitate parents prepared to share the learning responsibility at home. Be that reading, writing, homework. If there's something not happening at home due to whatever circumstance, it's something all the money in the world can't fix. Sometimes semi attendance is the best you can literally aspire to. If a child repeatedly attends secondary school with nits, no homework completed, and rarely a breakfast nevermind a bath. Injecting government funds won't cure what's happening behind the scenes, and parental support courses generally just at best teach the most basic of skills to impart. Not every child will/can attend Oxbridge, sometimes it's 'enough' that they leave education with basic Maths/English, or else they'd be illiterate.