The Student Room Group

Should private schools be banned?

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If you ban private schools, why not ban good parenting and good food too? Those are also unfairly distributed. This guy is an authoritarian tosser. Make state education better, don't ban private teaching.

Edit: this was aimed at post #160, not the OP.
(edited 9 years ago)
Original post by Sheldor
If you look at the proportion of applicants to Oxbridge, private school students make up around 36% of applicants, so it makes sense that the proportion of people accepted is similar. Even more so when you consider the fact that private school kids are more likely to apply for Classics and other less subscribed subjects, whilst most state school applicants will be going for the most competitive subjects like Medicine.


Eh? Competitive subjects like Medicine (at Russell Groups) have a monstrous disproportion of people from private schools, it beggars belief. It's almost sickening, even just typing that makes me feel nauseous. You need like straight A*s in your GCSEs don't you? And in your A-Levels as well, I'm guessing. Only like 1 out 300 people get that at a state school, if that...
(edited 9 years ago)
I went to state school and I turned out perfectly fine, though I do often wonder if I could have done better academically if I'd had the additional tuition and support that comes with buying your education.
If you got rid of private schools, that just means less places at state schools for students who actually need them, so getting rid of private schools is not the answer. State schools should just be made better.

An earlier poster suggested setting more rigorous standards for people to become teachers but I think it's fine if someone wants to teach with 2:2. Often, their marks in their PGCE's will determine how good of a teacher they are, rather than their marks as undergrads. As long as they know the school curriculum well, 'only' getting a 2:2 in their degree shouldn't be a problem as long as they are an outstanding teacher. I know plenty of people who got 1st class degrees and dropped off their PGCE's because they were a) awful at teaching or b) couldn't handle it. I'd rather have an outstanding teacher with a 2:2 than an adequate teacher with a 1st.
Original post by Numberwang
Here's the counter argument from a headmaster of an independent school in Solihull.

http://www.independent.co.uk/voices/comment/alan-bennett-is-wrong--its-state-schools-that-need-to-change-not-private-schools-9549748.html

I agree with Bennett though

The independent school guy certainly likes talking up the 'hard working families' who so dominate political discussion these days. Don't care for the implication that state schooled pupils are all from benefit street or have negligent parents though.
while it's natural for parents to want to help their children Bennett is correct that private education is about getting rich kids better grades than they otherwise would and is damaging society by closing out a lot of bright but averagely wealthy kids.

can't see abolition happening any time soon, perhaps there was a window of opportunity between the end of the war and the swinging 60s but it's gone.
there might be scope for making privates earn their tax exemption by helping out with state schools in some way, it's a joke that average income families, many of them 'hard working' , are forced to subsidise the leapfrogging of their own kids by the Fauntleroy's through the tax system.
Original post by JamesTheCool
Eh? Competitive subjects like Medicine (at Russell Groups) have a monstrous disproportion of people from private schools, it beggars belief. It's almost sickening, even just typing that makes me feel nauseous. You need like straight A*s in your GCSEs don't you? And in your A-Levels as well, I'm guessing. Only like 1 out 300 people get that at a state school, if that...


I'm talking purely about applying, when state school people are more likely to apply for Medicine than Classics and consequently more likely to be rejected. Although I'll be happy to look up stats for each subject in admissions

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Original post by arfah
I personally think they should be banned. It is unfair that everyone does not get the same education, and people are practically buying their/ child's education.
I wonder what everyone else's view is on this?


It is unfair that someone should be able to buy their child's education. Most of the children who go to private school recieve top education and many are not very bright. It is sad that children who are bright, cannot have the same chances as those who go to private school. To me, the whole system is unfair.
Original post by poppyevamay
It is unfair that someone should be able to buy their child's education. Most of the children who go to private school recieve top education and many are not very bright. It is sad that children who are bright, cannot have the same chances as those who go to private school. To me, the whole system is unfair.


The worst thing is that many private school kids actually do think they are the brightest kids around. They're not. A private education gives you more knowledge. Knowledge and intelligence are difference things. What worries me is that most people don't see it like that. I detest.
(edited 9 years ago)
It's true! I'm so glad someone agrees with me. Privately educated people are spoon fed everything. I feel the grammar and comprehensive systems provide students with the room they need to grow academically.
Original post by poppyevamay
It's true! I'm so glad someone agrees with me. Privately educated people are spoon fed everything. I feel the grammar and comprehensive systems provide students with the room they need to grow academically.


I'm curious about what you think of as different in private and grammar school's methods of teaching such that one is spoonfeeding and the other has academic growth?

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Original post by Sheldor
I'm curious about what you think of as different in private and grammar school's methods of teaching such that one is spoonfeeding and the other has academic growth?

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I feel that grammar schools have more of an open approach to learning and there is more room to learn and discover your own ways of learning whereas private schools learn very close to the curriculum and is very 'set'. I must say, this does work for many but just not for me.
Original post by poppyevamay
I feel that grammar schools have more of an open approach to learning and there is more room to learn and discover your own ways of learning whereas private schools learn very close to the curriculum and is very 'set'. I must say, this does work for many but just not for me.


That's interesting, I've found that private schools are quite open in my area. One of the benefits is that we can easily go off curriculum without problems. (For example, some of the maths sets learn A Level content as they also study for their GCSEs where relevant. )

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Original post by JoshBedford
I definitely think more academic scholarships should be given; private education should really be based more around academic skill and not whose parents can afford it


AGREED!!!
Lol true
Original post by ooh-la-laa
The damage is usually done before kids even start primary school. Private schools may be a symptom but they are not the cause of inequality.

I go to state school. I've got an offer from Cambridge. How did that happen if all state schools, as a later poster alleges are, s**t? And if he / she does not have a Cambridge offer presumably Mummy & Daddy have been wasting that 20 or 30 grand a year on private school fees.
AGREED
Original post by SocialistIC
You can tell people not to pay for the murder of someone else. You can tell someone not to buy drugs, humans or organs. I know they're not exactly comparable but you can absolutely tell people what they can and can't do with their own money - the idea you can't is ridiculous.

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