Social segregation is endemic… in private and state schools

http://www.theguardian.com/theobserver/2015/jul/05/private-schools-social-inequality-will-hutton

Version 0 of 1.

Will Hutton focuses on the part independent schools play in segregating young people by social class (“As long as we are divided by our education system, Britons will never grow equally”, Comment). State schools also play a big part in dividing our children. We know that 50% of young people on free school meals are in one-fifth of schools, and we have the third most segregated education system for new migrants in the OECD – catchment areas play a bigger part than private schools in our increasing social divisions.

Further, research by the Social Integration Commission found that ethnic segregation is higher among school-age children than those at work and university. The commission set out measures to tackle this, including a twinning policy between schools in areas with different ethnic makeups, to create opportunities for children to mix. Programmes such as the National Citizen Service can help too, providing a space for young people to meet, work together and form lasting friendships across ethnic and social divides. 

Unless we wake up to the seriousness of social segregation this problem is only going to get worse. We all have a part to play in ensuring our young people have the opportunity to see the world beyond our established comfort zones, not just parents considering private schools. 

Jon YatesStrategy director and co-founderThe ChallengeLondon SE1

I have recently returned to full-time education, after four years out, to support the school of which I am a governor overcome the Christmas departure of its head of year 11. What I have found is both encouraging and disturbing. Yes, schools and teachers are working very hard to meet the targets that are derived externally but driven internally by the fear of “failure”, and I am proud to be a colleague, albeit temporarily, of such professionals who, despite the relentless negative propaganda of the press, are a group of people of whom the country should be proud.

However, real problems lie in the nationwide drive to train our young people to pass examinations and the demotion of their humanity below the data they generate. A proper, relevant curriculum is decades away because of political dogma and the need for schools to find all means to maintain their pass rates. I would argue that our children are not being “educated” at all but are merely the innocent victims of a rotten system that has created a market-driven culture. The 180-plus young people I have had the pleasure to get to know as a head of year since January, and the rest of our young people, are better than this and should be entitled to better than this.

Lee PorterBridport, Dorset

Will Hutton is right that the inequalities in our education system are seriously holding back the advancement of equality in our society. But he mistakes parents’ desire to give their children the best possible education for “an obvious attempt to advantage their children over others…”. While there are parents who do send their children to independent schools for this reason, there are others who simply feel an independent school can offer their children a better and broader education. Middle-class parents are guilty of achieving this in many ways, not just by paying directly for education, but by paying indirectly for it, as the madness of rocketing house prices in the catchment areas of good state schools testifies. 

Parents keeping up an appearance of faith in order to get their children into “good” church schools is another way to outmanoeuvre others in order to give them “an obvious advantage”.  I am sure, however, that most of the parents in both these cases simply want the best for their children, just as those who choose to pay do. 

Of course, by keeping to the state sector they are helping raise standards of state education, but they are still using their wealth and ambition to push their children to the top of the social pile.

Tom GresfordLondon N16