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Class war making parents feel guilty about private schooling, say heads
Tim Ross, Education Correspondent16 Mar 2010
Parents who send their children to private schools are being made to feel guilty by affluent, middle-class hypocrites, headteachers claimed today.
Leading private schools condemned the prevailing “moral pressure” to shun independent education because it is seen as a sign of privilege.
The Independent Schools Council accused ministers of fuelling a class war by promoting positive discrimination in favour of working-class pupils applying to university.
The warning came as the ISC set out its “manifesto” for the coming general election with a damning verdict that Labour had not tackled educational failure and undermined many of the freedoms that allowed private schools to succeed.
The document said parents had a right to choose to pay for a high-quality education, adding: “In exercising their freedom of choice in this way, parents should not have to fear the imposition of artificial barriers or discrimination, or be made to feel guilty.”
Andrew Grant, chairman of the Headmasters' and Headmistresses' Conference of elite private schools — including Eton and Harrow — attacked affluent parents who claimed the “moral high ground” for sending their children to state comprehensives.
Mr Grant, headmaster of St Albans School, said: “It irritates me that people are living in £3 million houses, driving BMW 7-series, taking three or four holidays a year — and sending their children to the local comprehensive... and feeling they have the moral high ground.
"Why aren't they living in a council flat and driving a Trabant, or whatever the latest equivalent is? Why do they feel guilty? Why is there a moral pressure not to use your disposable income for the education of your children but to use it quite happily in other ways?”
The ISC's manifesto set out 10 key demands for whichever party forms the next government.
The group, which represents 1,260 private schools, said some state grammars in Dartford and Poole had been unfairly discriminating against children who had attended independent prep schools. Many parents pay for prep schools to help train their children to pass the 11-plus exam and win places in state grammars.
There were fears that government pressure on universities to take more working-class students would deny well-qualified private school pupils places at Oxford and Cambridge.
The ISC said the Government should “cease pursuing policies that treat attendance at independent schools as a proxy for undeserved educational or social privilege that requires positive discrimination”.
Reader views (3)
Has it occurred to Mr Grant that maybe, those parents whom he rails against are actually happy with the state education provision in St Albans? Therefore, the multi-million pound lifestyles they choose to lead include that choice. Or another alternative might be that these parents are in hock up to their eyeballs with their expensive houses and cars and so cannot afford the fees for private education. Or, more cynically, they do not value education as much as others.
It seems that there was little thought behind Mr Grant's comments - me thinks he has spent too long in the same rarefied sector and needs to get out a bit more.
- Chris, Felpham, Sussex, 17/03/2010 07:53
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What gross hypocrisy "There were fears that government pressure on universities to take more working-class students would deny well-qualified private school pupils places at Oxford and Cambridge." Well, for decades, the boot's been on the other foot with the elite minority of privately educated children gaining the majority of places at Oxford & Cambridge- they don't like it now that the equally intelligent hoi-polloi is gaining some headway.
- Anti-Separatist-Education, Essex, 16/03/2010 16:23
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I would be interested to see what proof the ISC has that grammar schools in Dartford are discriminating against children from prep schools. That is not my experience.
- Kay, Bexley, UK, 16/03/2010 13:30
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