PUNISHING PRIVATE SCHOOLS IS A DISASTER FOR EDUCATION

IT FEELS like open season on Scotland’s independent schools at the moment. Scarcely a week goes by without us being unfairly blamed for something or other, and our very existence is often held up as evidence that Scotland is not a fair country.

But in a fair country you might think that politicians would make a lot of effort to ensure that state education is really brilliant before taking time off to criticise independent schools.

Could it be that the Scottish Government’s policy to remove rates relief from independent schools – which is likely to cost far more than it raises – is intended to distract from its obvious policy failings in state education?

Maybe it’s time for some facts. Firstly, independent schools save the state money. Yes, we currently benefit from 80 per cent nondomestic rate relief, which saves my school some £400,000 a year.

But set against that the £14 million that my school annually saves the Scottish Government by relieving it of the cost of educating 2,400 children, and it looks like a good deal for the Government.

The other tax break we get as a charity is the same as any other charity, namely Gift Aid on donations. What does that go towards? Funnily enough, saving the state even more money by providing free places to children whose families cannot afford the fees.

Again, 27p for every pound invested seems a pretty good deal.

Secondly, children who attend independent schools are not a different species and neither are their parents. The parents who choose my school for their children work hard to afford the fees. Many make sacrifices and few would consider themselves privileged.

In fact, there are plenty of pupils at my school whose only privilege in life is attending a good school.

THIRDLY, most independent schools are not wealthy. Few have significant endowments and many operate on a wafer-thin surplus on their operating budget in order to keep fees as affordable as possible.

Even when schools have inherited vast and impressive buildings, the cost of maintenance makes many crave the more modest, practical and cost-effective environs of the latest generation of state schools.

Fourthly, independent schools make a significant contribution to the educational capital of the country. Disproportionately, our teachers work for examination bodies in devising, setting and marking school-based qualifications.

Our schools provide training places for teacher education, ensuring, in particular, that the supply of trained teachers in minority subjects can be sustained.

Fifthly, we make a huge contribution to our local economies by providing jobs and buying goods and services, while the recruitment of international pupils and franchising of school brands boosts the global competitiveness of the UK.

The rest of the world understands what our own politicians will not acknowledge – that Scotland’s independent schools are a globally significant asset in the emerging knowledge economy.

I cannot begin to understand the logic of our critics. Some suggest that because independent schools are supposedly bastions of elitism, they should be punished (or rather, the parents who send their children to them should be fined) by imposing VAT on their school fees or adding a surcharge to pay for state education, as though parents were not already paying through their taxes for a service they choose not to use anyway.

But it is not elitist to want a good, rounded education for your children.

If the Government hits us with more taxes, fees will go up.

The relatively few ultra-rich parents who send their children to independent schools would pay up without baulking at the extra cost, but many others will reluctantly move their children into state schools, costing the taxpayer far more than would be raised.

Some schools would close, but the others would become truly elitist in a way they are not at the moment.

So how could this possibly benefit anyone? The only plausible argument I have heard is that somehow those parents’ engagement in state education would help state schools to be better.

This argument is shockingly patronising to state school parents and also overlooks the many hours of support that people whose own children go to independent schools nevertheless devote to the state sector in every possible capacity.

We are told that Finland closed its private schools and now has one of the best education systems in the world. Well, good for the Finns.

Presumably the quality of their education system is nothing to do with the Finnish government spending very serious percentages of GDP on education, not least on paying teachers?

And how about this for a delicious irony? When the UK Government attempted to show it was doing quite well in spending on education (although still a long way behind Finland) it used figures which included (wait for it) the amount of money that parents paid in fees to independent schools.

Yes, Scotland’s independent schools stand for tradition but also for a lively, humane approach to education where children are individuals and achievement has many forms.

WE ARE successful, but rather than envying that success and trying to take us down, why doesn’t the Government try working with us to see what more we can do to enrich the educational life of the country?

Many of the big questions in education are ones that independent schools have developed distinctive ways of addressing.

Take physical activity and sport in our schools, for example, or the ways in which pupils are encouraged to take part in schemes such as the Duke of Edinburgh’s Award. How about the importance of music, or the focus on mental health that is obvious in our sector?

There is nothing elitist about my school’s commitment to learning support, to take another example.

Our pupils had access to help with learning difficulties a full decade before it was widely available in state schools.

Of course, we do not claim to have all the answers but neither is our experience and expertise irrelevant to the education system as a whole. We are all in favour of narrowing the gap and perhaps we could work together to raise the bar as well.

The alternative is the politics of displacement where people are encouraged to take a swipe at the easy target rather than analysing the problem and making tough decisions to address it.

This is also stupid politics. After all, if all of the independent schools in Scotland were somehow to close down, does anyone really think that the Government would find the money to absorb the extra pupils into state schools? I doubt it, too.

We have proved ourselves pretty good as a country at trashing what we have not bothered to understand. Let us not make this mistake with some of the most historic and successful institutions that Scotland has left.