A new breed of private school will raise standards

Parents have been starved of real options for their children. We should be offering accountability

When I was a teenager, kids set fire to the school I attended, a Bristol comprehensive, razing it to the ground. It felt like they were giving their verdict on government education. For it was a tumultuous period in which to be state-schooled. Two revolutions had coincided: the “progressive” one, which severed the authority of the teacher and knowledge, and comprehensivisation, which dumbed down the curriculum further and increased bad behaviour.

But when has it been a safe time to be at state school? From the introduction, corrections and countercorrections of the behemoth that is the National Curriculum, to the endless tweaking with national testing (illustrated again last week with new GCSE grades), politicians love to play games with education. Don’t fall into the trap of thinking that “tougher” GCSEs fix everything. What government giveth, government taketh away. You may like certain changes, but you can rest assured that others don’t. Because we have legitimised meddling, a new government will meddle some more. Anything good that has happened will surely be lost.

Those at the sharp end of this are young people like the ones who gave their damning verdict on my school. State education is not good enough for kids like them. Around one fifth of young adults in England are functionally illiterate and innumerate. Something dramatic is needed to solve this problem. For many, something dramatic means further reform. Anyone thus tempted should reflect on the sobering experience of the past five decades, which shows that good ideas inevitably get distorted by the educational establishment and are endlessly modified by new governments, increasing their complexity and decreasing their value.

There is another way. Something astonishing is happening in emerging economies. A remarkable privatisation of education is taking place, which research shows is leading to higher standards and greater parental satisfaction. No government has decided to reform education in this way: the people have had enough and created alternatives. Importantly, it gives the lie to the argument that we need government to be involved because that’s the only way the poor can gain an education: this grassroots’ revolution involves the poorest on the planet.

Poor parents in countries across Sub-Saharan Africa and Asia are using private education in huge numbers. In urban areas, typically 70 per cent of children are in private schools, which are affordable even by parents on the poverty line, charging perhaps £5-£10 per month. In poor rural areas, the figure is around 30 per cent. There are an estimated 400,000 low-cost private schools in India alone. In Lagos State, Nigeria, when private schools were counted, an extraordinary 12,000 were found. Testing random samples of children, controlling for background variables, research has shown how students in such schools significantly outperform those in state equivalents.

It could be argued that the reason people in these countries are flocking to private education is because their state schools are so much worse, so there are no lessons to be carried across. But it isn’t the only reason. Parents tell me: if I pay, the school is accountable to me. Perhaps here in the UK, parents may have the same desire for schools accountable to them?

That’s why a small group of us in the north east of England have decided to explore whether there could be demand for independent, low-cost schooling here too. We’ve decided to create a private school charging just £2,700 per annum, the first in a chain that will offer a viable, affordable alternative to state education. While awaiting government approval, we mooted the idea to a few people, and before we knew it had 100 expressions of interest. Parents of all kinds have suggested that they’d prefer what we’re aiming to do than what is on offer in the local state schools. Unexpected people, Left-wing professors and the like, have told me that if such a chain had been available when their children were of school age, they would have used it.

I can only conclude that people have been starved of options. The only alternative to inadequate state education for most in Britain has been to seek reform, which hasn’t fixed the inadequacies. But outside Britain, people have cut through this Gordian Knot and embraced an independent alternative. Such a solution might well be attractive to British people, too.

James Tooley is a professor of education policy at Newcastle University