How to be top at school
WHAT do Robert Walpole, Pitt the Elder, William Gladstone, Harold Macmillan, David Cameron and Boris Johnson have in common? Answer: they all attended Eton College. Never mind that the new Foreign Secretary, Home Secretary and Chancellor are State educated, the arrival of the latest Etonian —the 20th—in 10, Downing Street seems to be too much for some people to take.
Labour Against Private Schools intends to propose a motion at the party conference this month to abolish the charitable status (and tax benefits) of fee-paying schools. It wants a university intake of only 7% from the private sector and to nationalise the assets of historic places such as Harrow and Winchester. If passed, it will be written into Labour’s election manifesto.
Apart from the sheer bitterness of it, where’s the open-minded, free-market vision that recognises healthy competition, choice and variety in life? The motion creates an unfair dichotomy for voters who would like freedom of choice and it deserves the obvious response that it might be more constructive first to campaign for muchneeded improvements in some State schools.
Independent schools must respond by trumpeting loudly that they’re not leeches on the economy and are an important contributor to the GDP. A report commissioned by the Independent Schools Council (ISC) shows the sector added £13.7 billion to the economy in 2017, generating £4.1 billion in tax revenues and supporting 303,000 jobs —more than the equivalent of employing the working population of Liverpool, it asserts.
Less tangibly, but no less important for individuality, the ISC points out that its schools can afford to offer the new scientific skills that could ultimately benefit everyone. They can preserve niche subjects such as archaeology, Classical civilisation and astronomy, plus languages, music and the sports—cricket, rowing, rugby, sailing —in which Britons from all educational backgrounds excel.
Like other criticised sectors—landowning, fieldsports, agriculture—independent schools need to spend less on unnecessary luxury and promote louder their contribution to society (School Life, ‘Partnership not patronage’, page 138).
Pretty much every independent school has charitable partnerships at home and abroad, shares its facilities locally, instills in pupils a social conscience and offers full bursaries. Cathedral choir schools offer a superb education to children who are naturally musical.
It’s an irony that the most frequently touted names, among them Eton, were founded to nurture social mobility, not quash it. However, if these schools are to retain that moral high ground—and perhaps their autonomy—they must focus on their charitable responsibilities and put the fees from wealthy overseas parents to more altruistic use before building another Olympic-sized swimming pool.
Independent schools should spend less on luxury and promote louder their contribution to society