The Student Room Group
Uni students - Complete our survey >>
Uni students - Complete our survey >>
Uni students - Complete our survey >>

Why British people dislike private education?

Parents are not monsters for doing everything they can to ensure their child is mentally equipped for the world. These people arent the world super elite, they just live in decent respectable neighbourhoods, yet why are they vilified and tabloid celebs who earn vastly more are applauded.

Why not spend less on cars and tvs and more on your offsprings education isnt it?

Scroll to see replies

Maybe people can't afford to send their children to private school because they're barely scraping the money to survive?

I think people dislike private education because these children will automatically get a better education and therefore better opportunities than other children, just because their parents have more money. The government are also constantly cutting funding for schools, which means that working class children are put at more of a disadvantage.

It's not about the children or the parents as much as it is about the class system and the education system in the UK.
Reply 2
Avatar for RedManc
RedManc
3
Original post by DeHumanisation
Parents are not monsters for doing everything they can to ensure their child is mentally equipped for the world. These people arent the world super elite, they just live in decent respectable neighbourhoods, yet why are they vilified and tabloid celebs who earn vastly more are applauded.

Why not spend less on cars and tvs and more on your offsprings education isnt it?


Because it gives people an unfair advantage.
Because it is unfair that poorer families will not have the chance to secure a better education for their children, simply because they might have been born disadvantaged. It makes it harder to move up in society. Especially because state funded schools tend to be bad (limiting potential), and some verge on inadequate. There is a huge disparity between a state school in a deprived region and a top private school in central London.
Original post by DeHumanisation
Parents are not monsters for doing everything they can to ensure their child is mentally equipped for the world. These people arent the world super elite, they just live in decent respectable neighbourhoods, yet why are they vilified and tabloid celebs who earn vastly more are applauded.

Why not spend less on cars and tvs and more on your offsprings education isnt it?


Because many wouldn't make it into the top tier universities without it.
Reply 5
Avatar for sedqr
sedqr
I think the issue is not so much that people dislike private education; but more that it creates a very unequal society - where access to the best schools is based upon ability to pay, not ability to take advantage of the offer. Of course there are many fantastic state schools as well. But the point is that its great for those who are able to send their sons and daughters to one, but no so much to those on the outside - who, let's face it, are at a major disadvantange.

This obviously has implications for university as well. Often state schoolers do not really blossom until they get to university - whilst many who have attended private schools (or good schools in general) have already reached close to their potential due to being pushed at school.

So I think its not so much a dislike of private schools - they are fantastic institutions which bring the very best out of their students - but of the implications they have for the rest of society, where many students will not reach their potential prior to university due to the zero-sum nature of the way in which schools are allocated the best teachers/learning environments.
(edited 7 years ago)
Original post by RedManc
Because it gives people an unfair advantage.


Doesnt that apply to everything in life though. Height, ability, genetics? What is so special about education that is it has to be ringfenced.
Necessary evil. Essentially destroys any sense of meritocracy in a society but without them, fewer people would enter the teaching profession and there wouldn't be enough school places to go around.
Reply 8
Avatar for RedManc
RedManc
3
Original post by DeHumanisation
Doesnt that apply to everything in life though. Height, ability, genetics? What is so special about education that is it has to be ringfenced.


The UK supports poorer people. Everyone should get the same chance.
Original post by hypnotismm
Maybe people can't afford to send their children to private school because they're barely scraping the money to survive?

I think people dislike private education because these children will automatically get a better education and therefore better opportunities than other children, just because their parents have more money. The government are also constantly cutting funding for schools, which means that working class children are put at more of a disadvantage.

It's not about the children or the parents as much as it is about the class system and the education system in the UK.


There is no class system. There is the willing and the able and then there are the degenerates. The reason we have poor households is because of poor morality and discipline - while some may be outright unable. But the very fact that there are so many private pupils from the likes of Nigeria and India demonstrates that poverty is not an issue in education, its merely the fact that most UK parents prefer their kids to go out and and earn a living at 16/18.
Original post by hypnotismm
Maybe people can't afford to send their children to private school because they're barely scraping the money to survive?

I think people dislike private education because these children will automatically get a better education and therefore better opportunities than other children, just because their parents have more money. The government are also constantly cutting funding for schools, which means that working class children are put at more of a disadvantage.

It's not about the children or the parents as much as it is about the class system and the education system in the UK.


That's just not true, grammar schools provide a better education than most private schools, it's only the elite ones that really make a difference.
Reply 11
Avatar for MattB_
MattB_
12
Most private schools now a days offer bursaries to help students from disadvantaged backgrounds achieve a private education. One school of the top of my head offers bursaries and scholarships offering in the region of £6 million off the school fees each year. So private schools have become more accessible and students irrespective of their upbringing have many more opportunities available to them then say 10-20 years ago.
Original post by DeHumanisation
There is no class system. There is the willing and the able and then there are the degenerates. The reason we have poor households is because of poor morality and discipline - while some may be outright unable. But the very fact that there are so many private pupils from the likes of Nigeria and India demonstrates that poverty is not an issue in education, its merely the fact that most UK parents prefer their kids to go out and and earn a living at 16/18.


I thought this was going to be a genuine debate about the education system.

So you're punishing talented children for the supposed 'failures' of their parents?
Original post by RedManc
The UK supports poorer people. Everyone should get the same chance.


No they shouldnt. If you come from a line of descendents who have never read a book in their life and who are basically farm hands, construction workers etc why on earth are you as equally entitled to an education as a child from a line of respectable doctors.
Original post by DeHumanisation
There is no class system. There is the willing and the able and then there are the degenerates. The reason we have poor households is because of poor morality and discipline - while some may be outright unable. But the very fact that there are so many private pupils from the likes of Nigeria and India demonstrates that poverty is not an issue in education, its merely the fact that most UK parents prefer their kids to go out and and earn a living at 16/18.


Do you not see how a private education system favours the upper class? Children who are born into rich families get to go to private schools to get the best education, then go to top universities and into top jobs.

Whereas working class people go to state schools which are underfunded, either don't do well and start working after school or start at apprenticeships. The government make it so that working class people stay in working class jobs.

Obviously, people can work hard and some people are self made and come from working class backgrounds. But surely you can see why this isn't common, because the opportunities are just not there for working class students. It's harder to get into top universities when the school you attended couldn't afford more teachers, better equipment and better facilities.
It's just a waste of money in my opinion
Original post by RedManc
The UK supports poorer people. Everyone should get the same chance.


Impossible. Nature isn't like that, why pretend otherwise?
Poor trolling
Original post by DeHumanisation
Its very rare to find talented children from outside of leafy suburbia. They just dont instinctively have that clean cut middle class knack for formal learning. Working class teens are mostly only interested in money to fund their debased pleasures; they dont for the most part have that instinctive knack for learning medicine, accountancy etc - its not in their blood, a working class/black at uni doesnt look genuine.
Original post by DeHumanisation
Its very rare to find talented children from outside of leafy suburbia. They just dont instinctively have that clean cut middle class knack for formal learning. Working class teens are mostly only interested in money to fund their debased pleasures; they dont for the most part have that instinctive knack for learning medicine, accountancy etc - its not in their blood, a working class/black at uni doesnt look genuine.


Okay well you're obviously a troll, you're not even interested in having a debate - all you're doing is saying working class people lack talent and intelligence. I am studying at a college which is unbelievably underfunded (as are most further education facilities) and there are plenty of people who want to go into medicine etc, but they have had a much more difficult time than those who go to private schools. Private school students have a way easier time getting into top universities than working class students, especially because they are able to afford to live in more expensive places
I can't speak for the British people, but I dislike the idea of private schools because they either

a) Really provide better education than public schools because of better funding. In this case they promote elitism and prevent social upward mobility, e. g. parents go to a private (good) school, get good grades because of that, go to a prestiguous university, earn a lot of money and can afford to send their children to a private school etc.
That's how dynasties work.

Of course that doesn't mean it's not a good idea for parents to send their child to a private school, from their perspective it's a sound investment. It's just that the system is crooked.

or b) Provide average or slightly worse than average education. Not sure if it is the case, but I could imagine that once you are dependend on parents choosing you, you start focussing more on appearing to deliver good education than actually doing a good job and give decent grades and predictions by default. The actual quality of education may vary significantly.


Just my two cents. I don't know terribly much about British private schools, I just dislike the idea. If I got something wrong, please convince me otherwise :smile:

Posted from TSR Mobile

Quick Reply

Latest

Trending

Trending

Articles for you