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Do you think we should abolish private schools?

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What it says on the tin.

I just left a private school, and I think the government should try to get state schools (the average) up to private school level before thinking about abolishing them. Why drag everyone down just in the name of faux 'equality'?

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tbh, i'm not a private school student or anything but I don't see why people have such an issue with them...
their parents pay soooooo much money for an education that a state school can provide?
universities acknowledge when a student is from a private school. at the end of the day, it's not as if the private school has all the answers to all the exams the students sit... the students still have to revise hard to get the A*'s

Reply 41

username1155925

I go to a private school, and I love it there. The teachers are mostly brilliant, and when something horrible happened to me earlier this year they were all so supportive. In my old primary school, if I didn't understand something the teacher could never be bothered explaining it, but now I can go and see a teacher any time and they're happy to help. We get loads of support, for example, I've applied to medicine, and there are regular medics meetings, they organised formal mock interviews for us, and there were extra lessons for the bmat.

Rather than abolishing private schools, the government should concentrate on getting state schools up to this standard, so everyone can have the same opportunities and get the same support when it comes to applying to uni or apprenticeships etc. But bear in mind that the pupils themselves need to have a better attitude towards learning- even in our school there are people who don't put the effort in, so having great teachers barely makes a difference.

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Reply 42

The_Duck

Original post by james22

Equality should not be our primary aim, our primary aim should be to increase the stadard of living of the poorest in society. If this means that the rich get even better still, that doesn't really matter.

I disagree completely. We should'nt be able to call a child rich or poor, and then predict how successful they will be off of that.

Also to give the rich extra help is inefficient.

Reply 43

Telecaster Steak

As long as it is possible for someone to pay money to give their children an advantage, we will never be able to get rid of the class system

Reply 44

james22

Original post by The_Duck

I disagree completely. We should'nt be able to call a child rich or poor, and then predict how successful they will be off of that.

Also to give the rich extra help is inefficient.

Do you propose a better system that will keep standards of living as high?

Reply 45

thoyub

State schools can never be realistically be brought up to their level just because of their nature, they are free. Private schools have more resources, hate to say it but it's true.

Reply 46

Truefaith

No.

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Reply 47

Jkizer

If the private sector wants to charge for quality education, so be it.

If a parent wants to pay some of their own hard earn money to improve their children's education prospects, they should be allowed.

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Reply 48

SoftPunch

You can't abolish independent organisations. People pay for private schools.

Reply 49

Alfissti

Abolishing private schools won't change anything other than there being one less place for wealthy parents to congregate at.

Abolishing it will mean now the state has to provide even more places as those same students will be needing a place, during the onset of the economic crisis many middle class parents were forced to pull their kids out of private schools and send them to state ones, that already created massive gridlocks all over the system.

As UK's schooling system today is very much a post-code lottery any home within a catchment area of a good school will simply be snapped up by the wealthier for their kids to go there, won't be long either before they make it difficult for less well off people to be there.

Now put this thought in your head, today the vast majority of the wealthier send their kids to be educated privately, in their private schools they will be among their peers, they shall be speaking about their latest pony, how daddy just bought mummy a brand new Range Rover and she is unhappy over the colour of the seats, then they shall be complaining that their home is so big they get lost in it, these same bunch will now attend your state schools and most likely they won't be mingling among you plebs but in their own clique of other students with wealthy parents because they aren't going to want to share their pony with you and most likely their mummy wouldn't want you to even touch her Range Rover let alone for you to get a ride after school in it.

Standards aren't going to improve by abolishing private schools, all that will happen is where it is deemed standards their kids are receiving isn't adequate they would simply hire the best tutor out there.... today I can easily hire an Oxbridge qualified teacher for as little as £30 per hour to tutor my kids and these tutors can most likely bring a barely passing kid to be an A* student within an academic year. I suppose these will go down in price if you get rid of private schools as there would be plenty of teachers, tutors and other academic staff that would be out of job, the rich will easily be able to afford them while you plebs will not so you will be back at square one.

What next would you like to abolish? Oxbridge?

Reply 50

Xabier

Original post by Nitrogen

Inverse snobbery. I've been attending state schools all my life and I went to one of the worst High schools in UK. Abolishing private schools will do nothing, but drag the education system down. Like others have said abolishing private schools won't change anything except make more people worse off.

Tried to rate but "You have reached the limit of how many posts you can rate today!" :frown:

Reply 51

MindTheGaps

Original post by The_Duck

I disagree completely. We should'nt be able to call a child rich or poor, and then predict how successful they will be off of that.

Also to give the rich extra help is inefficient.

So, to paraphrase the great lady, you'd rather have the poor poorer, as long as the rich were less rich.

How nice of you.

Reply 52

nulli tertius

Original post by Birkenhead

Have you read FE's maiden recently? As a member of the most benighted Tory return ever he did a bloody good job of holding the government to account. I've never read anything so long which held my interest so tightly.

Sorry, no.

Do you have an opinion on free schools, to distract the thread only slightly?

I think academies are the real deal for getting local councils out of education and free schools are an ideological distraction taking up too much ministerial time and effort for the number of kids they will ever educate.

What Gove should have realised is that his department didn't have the manpower to act as financial watchdog for literally thousands of schools. It needed a quango with no educational remit but an obligation to ensure that school money didn't end up in brother in law's pocket.

Reply 53

Le Nombre

Original post by SoftPunch

You can't abolish independent organisations. People pay for private schools.

Ah, I shall inform drug lords that as their organisations are independent and people pay for the products they provide they cannot be abolished.

You can legislate to abolish anything should you so wish, and given the nature of a school enforcing such a rule would be quite easy, it's whether to do so is a good idea that matters.

Reply 54

RVNmax

Yes I have felt that as a fairly clever student at a state school I was 'pulled down' by the school and other pupils. I think the clever lot (myself included) are only clever because of their carers/family. I think if we had the private and state school pupils merge, it might bring down the standard of the rich kids slightly, but would also increase the results of some of the poor lot as there would generally be a higher proportion of 'aspiring pupils' in the state schools due to the already 'aspiring rich kids' mixing with the few 'poorer aspirants'.

Upon the point of bringing down the quality of some rather than increasing the quality of the majority, YES I do believe that is fine! Equality is important, and in future generations when all children are given equal opportunities, more 'poor' kids will feel as if the playing field is level, thus also become 'aspiring students' rather than resorting to crime IYKWIM. :smile:

Reply 55

thewagwag

Original post by RVNmax

Upon the point of bringing down the quality of some rather than increasing the quality of the majority, YES I do believe that is fine!

Isn't that just stupid. Why would you prefer to drag everyone down rather than up? I don't follow at all

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Reply 56

RVNmax

Original post by thewagwag

Isn't that just stupid. Why would you prefer to drag everyone down rather than up? I don't follow at all

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Because dragging a few down slightly will pull the rest up! :eek:

Reply 57

thewagwag

Original post by RVNmax

Because dragging a few down slightly will pull the rest up! :eek:

That might be one of the stupidest things I've ever seen in writing. Did joey Essex tell you that?

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Reply 58

felamaslen

Abolishing private schools is oppressive.

What needs to happen is state schools need to become selective, so that they can actually provide a decent education.

Inequality starts at home, and most students who don't do well at school can blame their idiotic parents for not valuing education or the enlightenment.

(edited 10 years ago)

Reply 59

RVNmax

Original post by thewagwag

That might be one of the stupidest things I've ever seen in writing. Did joey Essex tell you that?

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It seems like you're one of those people who like having the last word on everything, even if it's pointless. The reason I say that is because in either of your two posts that I've now responded to, you haven't given any reasoning thus making your posts of no use to a forum.

You could say that I'm now also someone who wants the last word on everything, but no, I actually want to know why you think how you do(so please answer :biggrin: