Privateschools

Regarding Lord Foulkes’ article “Private schools should pay full tax” on 2 December, private schools are businesses which should pay proper rates. They are subsidised by everyone else who does not attend, including the poorest. False claims of “independence” hide their essentially parasitic relationship with the rest of society.

Private schools do not educate or train their own teachers, who get degrees at universities/teacher training establishments, or their medically qualified staff, technicians, grounds-workers etc – all funded by us. The government (paid for by us) provides all the educational infrastructure, curriculum, examinations, test systems, inspectors and so on, not to mention local authority services in the way of water, street lights and rubbish collection. The local authority has to subsidise these business at the expense of everyone else.

Private schools take much from society, but not only do they not give anything of value back, they cause harm.

These businesses benefit from huge swathes of prime land and buildings given to help poor/orphaned/disadvantaged children to supply well-off, often not local, not always even Scottish or British children, and deny LAS their due benefit. They seriously distort educational provision, especially in places like Edinburgh and Glasgow, where there is a very high proportion of these subsidised private schools. They not only reduce the number of active parents who will work for good education for all but they damage all children, including their own pupils, by not having a proper community role.

All the evidence shows that the very best education (not just “results”) for children is to be in a school with a full mix of both abilities and class: this gives the greatest stimulation for everyone. Finland is a good example, though, of course, they are a fairly equal, democratic society unlike the Scotland of the present, but nearer the Scotland of the past – and of the future, I hope.

SUSAN F G FORDE Main Street, Scotlandwell