The Student Room Group

Private schools should be banned!

Firstly, I realise that this thread has been done before, however I believe the Op was incoherent in his argument and didn't even put a reasonably strong argument forward, instead, he just rambled. So here is my concise argument, with just 2 points.

Equality
Quite an obvious place to start is the argument that if by removing wealth as a factor of a child's academic success, the educational system and future generations of society as a whole would be a lot more equal.
Just look at where the top universities are in terms of proportions of students from private school - at the top end.
http://www.studentbeans.com/student-money/a/the-posh-university-league2169.html
Now look at this, studies have found there is a bias in the selection process.
http://www.independent.co.uk/student/news/top-universities-really-are-biased-in-favour-of-private-school-pupils-8549126.html

More effective
Finland went from having a mediocre education system, to the best in the world, how? They banned private schools and made education equal for all
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/education/schools/are-finnish-schools-the-best-in-the-world-2289083.html
If you look at other top countries for education, you will find they all have a similar ethos, while "Great" Britain sits in a mediocre 31st place.

I truly believe an education system where equality rules would greatly improve standards for the whole country. Since this is an "Educational Debate", what are your thoughts on this?
(edited 10 years ago)

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Heisenberg does not believe in equality.......not anymore.:crown:
Private schooling does give you an advantage in gaining a place at a good university/good course that's pretty much evident. I would also say it makes much more rounded individuals. However to say it should be abolished is wrong even if it is unfair in a sense.

A private school is a business just like any other service provider like Tesco or a drycleaners. They provide you with an education and other activities in return for money. There is nothing unethical or unfair about this point. What would be unfair is stopping owners of a private school from running their "business". Yes it might be annoying that students from a rich backround are able to go to a potentially better school than the typical student but I still don't think this is unfair.

If you say this is unfair then in my opinion most of the "rich" student's entire lives are "unfair". They may wine & dine better, have better leisure activities, live a comfortable life etc etc.

If we abolish pvt schools then it would be unfair on those who want to go to one, those who can afford to go to one and those who own one. The only way to improve our education system is to better our state education.

I don't see how the Finland case has anything to do with fees. There are a bunch of factors that could determine why their system is better than ours.
Okay, i see your argument, but what do you suggest?
Every child who attends a private school has parents who pay tax. Therefore they are entitled to a state school education.
So you shut all private schools, and all the children move to state schools.
The state schools then have a load of new children, with little extra funding for the new pupils. the only way to meet that is to increase the education budget and that's a bit tight already..
Bigger classes, but no money for new desks, or teachers, or books...
how would you solve that problem?
(edited 10 years ago)
Eliminating private schools does not eliminate inequality. All that happens is rich people move somewhere, outprice everyone else, and invest heavily in local schools. There is a reason that wealthy areas have 'better' schools than poorer areas.
Original post by indigoheart

So you shut all private schools, and all the children move to state schools.
The state schools then have a load of new children, with no extra funding.


schools are funded per head on the registers.
Original post by cambio wechsel
schools are funded per head on the registers.


There would still be a roughly 7% rise in the education budget - something we can't really afford.
I agree in principle, but it makes more sense to improve state education rather than drag private schoolers down.
Original post by PythianLegume
There would still be a roughly 7% rise in the education budget - something we can't really afford.


Actually, I wonder what the net effect for the exchequer might be. Denied the opportunity to pay school fees (let us not forget that most private schools have charitable status) formerly fee-paying parents would find themselves with up to 30 grand on their hands for discretionary and taxable spending. The total per head spend on students at state schools needed to admit the swollen numbers might be smaller than the resulting VAT windfall.
Reply 9
Equality should be created by pulling those at the bottom up the ladder, not by kicking those at the top down.
what about homeschooling? should that be banned?
I loathe the idea of equality of outcome.
No, you are under the illusion that education must be equal.

And if we did ban private schools for the benefit of the general population, we might as well adopt communism.
Reply 13
Funny thread. We got to ban private healthcare as well ?


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Original post by Ilyas
if we did ban private schools for the benefit of the general population, we might as well adopt communism.


It would be a sort of childhood-communism which ends when adulthood is reached, at which point people are ready to fend for themselves. It wouldn't be communism for responsible adults.

Original post by Jkizer
Funny thread. We got to ban private healthcare as well ?

No, as private healthcare does not provide exclusively for children. What we're talking about here is eliminating a child's background as a contributing factor to his/her socioeconomic status.

What people normally say here is something along these lines:
- Parents can spend their money and educate their children however they like.
- Private schools are companies providing a service, and should be free to do so.

The issue with this is that it's cherry picking. People are not happy for parents to neglect their children, and I bet if we asked whether we should ban extreme Islamic Madrasa boarding schools, a large number of private proponents would say yes. Companies are not free to do what they like to children, either - they are not allowed to sell alcohol to them, to sell cigarettes or 18-rated films. These are all rules implemented to protect children, as they are not at an age where they can decide for themselves.

In this case, they're not at an age where they can fend or decide for themselves, and so a ban on private schools, homeschooling, and religious schools can be argued to be justified.

There is admittedly a problem with initially coping with the new influx of students, and the loss of funding from private school parents.
(edited 10 years ago)
Remove private schools, blatantly those neg rates were by people from private schools who don't know how lucky they are
People shouldn't have to pay for the top education, tell me is this fair? That whoever has more money is more likely to have better education than those without?
Reply 17
Equality? There are several Grammar schools that rank higher than Private schools, the public sector should simply be improved instead of abolishing the 'unfair' private sector.
The wealth is the big factor that goes missing by banning private schools. Yes, it'd make standards more equal, but it'd be bringing the top down rather than the bottom up. The fact is, private school parents plug thousands of pounds per child per year into the education system, which leads to the excellent teaching standards, and that's a lot of money that the government doesn't have. About 7% of UK students are private-schooled, so imagine if it costs £70m per year to administer private schooling to those kids - that's £1bn the government has to find to extend those standards to all pupils. The only way it'd be able to do that would be ramping up taxes massively, and no party advocating that would get anywhere near power in this country.
Reply 19
Weirdly enough OP I have experience of both private UK education and the Finnish system - my grades dropped dramatically when I started Finnish school. At least at private schools they pressure you to learn and have really great facilities. No idea how the Finnish system is top, although I do prefer their matriculation system to A-Levels.

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