Recorded on Saturday 19 October, 2013. as part of the School Fights strand at the Battle of Ideas festival 

The place of independent schools in Britain’s education

landscape has never been so intensely debated. According to Martin

Stephen, former high master of St Paul’s School, two of the three main

political parties hate independent schools ‘to the core of their being’,

while the Conservatives are run by so many public schoolboys that they

cannot afford to extend ‘the merest hand of friendship’ to such schools

without being caricatured by the media. But do private schools protest

too much about ‘posh prejudice’? The 7% of pupils who attend fee-paying

schools go on to dominate Oxbridge places and elite professions such as

law, the media and science. Are those who defend private schools

prepared to defend the perpetuation of such inequality on the grounds of

individual freedom?

Or is it not true that independent schools are full of ‘toffs’ when a

third of pupils in schools in the Headmasters’ and Headmistresses’

Conference (of independent schools) have bursary support? Might the

growing popularity of private schools be an indictment of failing

comprehensive schools? Is it right that parents who make sacrifices for

their children’s education are made to feel such an outlay is morally

questionable? Is it necessarily wrong to pay for education? And when so

many politicians across the political divide have enjoyed the benefits

of a private education, from Eton boys David Cameron, Oliver Letwin and

Boris Johnson to supposed class warriors Ed Balls, Harriett Harman and

Chuka Umunna, it is hypocritical of them to distance themselves from the

independent sector and seek to undermine it? Is opposition to private

schools motivated as much by a stale left-wing prejudice against

aspiration as a real commitment to public provision?

What if one values both equality and choice? Are these ideals

hopelessly incompatible when it comes to the debate about private

education? And where do new models of schooling that combine private and

public provisions, such as Free Schools and Academies, fit into the

debate? Is opposition to private schools just part of a more general

hostility to private institutions? Or is it essential to forging a fair

education system that benefits all pupils?

Speakers

Professor James Conroy

Dean for European Engagement and professor of philosophical and religious education, University of Glasgow

Fiona Millar

columnist, Guardian, co-founder, Local Schools Network

David Perks

principal, East London Science School; author, What is science education for?; co-author, Sir Richard Sykes Review of school examinations and A defence of subject-based education

Dr Martin Stephen

director of education, GEMS UK; former high Master, St Paul's School

Chair

Kevin Rooney

Politics teacher and head of social science, Queen's School, Bushey; blogger at Fans for Freedom