Should private schools admit pupils on a finance-blind basis?

Should the top selective private schools be encouraged (or forced) to make admissions decisions with no knowledge of the applicant's ability to pay?

It seems the abolition of private schools won't happen any time soon... might this be a decent compromise?

No.. The parents would still have to pay for the school fees + if they can't the student would have to be chucked from the school causing unnecessary drama.

Most private schools offer some sort of bursary/scholarship to those who they think have the academic/art ability to go to the school and obviously by forcing private schools to not know of the applicants ability to pay these cannot be offered.


Posted from TSR Mobile

You've missed my point - those students who they select, but cannot pay, receive a full/part bursary.

Unfortunately, I can't remember which school it was (it was well-known), but I was on a website and they said they were working towards the system I suggested.

Should the top selective private schools be encouraged (or forced) to make admissions decisions with no knowledge of the applicant's ability to pay?

It seems the abolition of private schools won't happen any time soon... might this be a decent compromise?

I suspect that is the way the schools with deep pockets and illustrious alumni lists will go.

I think it is also the way that those schools that have become honeypots for Russian and Chinese oligarchs will go in order to keep up a reasonable British student base.

It isn't realistic for most private schools that are struggling to fill their places. They have few endowments and struggle to fill their places with parents able to pay for teh cost of their own children's education let alone the cost of others.

Other schools will effectively move into the state sector. At least two independent schools have done this and abolished fees.

I think Christ's Hospital is needs blind at present and there may be others.

Christ's Hospital is a bit of a special case, having been founded as a charity... also their uniform is nuts. Played a rugby match there (we were annihilated) and there were robes everywhere.

But where does the money for poor students come from?

And anyway, poor students won't do well on average because they are less likely to be as academically ready as a wealthier student regardless of innate talents.

It can only come from three places:-

Endowments

Current pupils paying more than the actual cost of their education

The government in the form of an assisted places or voucher scheme



There is no evidence of this at primary school level. We do have an evidence base for this with the assisted places scheme that ran between 1981 and 1997.

Where do endowments would come from?

Why should a pupil (or a parent in this case) basically pay for someone's child private education?

Why should the government fund this?

The Direct Grant schools, abolished by Labour, gave wider opportunities for bright children from modest backgrounds. The Direct Grant principle will therefore be restored with an Assisted Places Scheme. Less well-off parents will be able to claim part or all of the fees at certain schools from a special government fund.

1. Contradiction? It is a well known fact that poor kids start school with a lower amount of vocab than their wealthier counterparts. Lower amount of vocab at start means that they are already behind. And I haven't heard of them ever catching up on average. If anything things get worse when they start secondary.

In the case of Eton the original endowment was by Henry VIth. No doubt others have added to, and are still adding to it since then.



Because that's the deal. If a school says the fees are say £11,000 per term but the true cost of providing the education is £10,000 then a parent has a choice, pay up or go elsewhere. It is exactly what you will be doing if you read an arts subject at any non-Oxbridge, non-London university. Your course won't cost £9,000. You are subsidising chemists.



This is what the the 1979 Conservative Manifesto said:-





I suggest then you speak to some young people of East European or East Asian backgrounds who had literally no English vocabulary at the start of primary school and doing perfectly well in mainstream education. I think your weasel words are "on average". By definition anyone putting their child forward for any scheme for admission to a private school cares about education.

So let us see if private schools embrace your idea.