applicants for every vacancy. Several other schools have two applicants for
each vacancy, but they are careful not to expand to meet demand. In the
words of one academic, 'Schools at the top of the system have a vested
interest in being elitist. They would lose that characteristic if they
expanded. To some extent they pride themselves on the length of their
waiting lists.' This rush to private education is despite the steep rise in
fees, 31 per cent between 1985 and 1988, and over 50 per cent between 1990
and 1997 when the average annual day fees were Ј5,700 and boarding fees
double that figure. Sixty per cent of parents would probably send their
children to fee-paying schools if they could afford to.
In order to obtain a place at a public school, children must take a
competitive examination, called 'Common Entrance'. In order to pass it,
most children destined for a public school education attend a preparatory
(or 'prep') school until the age of 13.
Independent schools remain politically controversial. The Conservative
Party believes in the fundamental freedom of parents to choose the best
education for their children. The Labour Party disagrees, arguing that in
reality only the wealthier citizens have this freedom of choice. In the
words of Hugh Gaitskell, the Labour leader in 1953, 'We really cannot go on
with a system in which wealthy parents are able to buy what they and most
people believe to be a better education for their children. The system is
wrong and must be changed.' But since then no Labour government has dared
to abolish them.
There can be no doubt that a better academic education can be obtained
in some of the public schools. In 1993 92 of the 100 schools with the best
A-level results were fee-paying. But the argument that parents will not
wish to pay once state schools offer equally good education is misleading,
because independent schools offer social status also. Unfortunately
education depends not only on quality schools but also on the home
environment. The background from which pupils come greatly affects the
encouragement they receive to study. Middle-class parents are likely to be
better able, and more concerned, to support their children's study than low-
income parents who themselves feel they failed at school. State-maintained
schools must operate with fewer resources, and in more difficult
circumstances, particularly in low-income areas. In addition, the public
school system creams off many of the ablest teachers from the state sector.
The public school system is socially divisive, breeding an atmosphere
of elitism and leaving some outside the system feeling socially or
intellectually inferior, and in some cases intimidated by the prestige
attached to public schools. The system fosters a distinct culture, one
based not only upon social superiority but also upon deference. As one
leading journalist, Jeremy Paxman, himself an ex-public schoolboy remarked,
The purpose of a public school education is to teach you to respect people
you don't respect.' In the words of Anthony Sampson, himself an ex-pupil of
Westminster, the public school elite 'reinforces and perpetuates a class
system whose divisions run through all British institutions, separating
language, attitudes and motivations'.
Those who attend these schools continue to dominate the institutions
at the heart of the British state, and seem likely to do so for some time
to come. At the beginning of the 1990s public schools accounted for 22 out
of 24 of the army's top generals, two-thirds of the Bank of England's
external directors, 33 out of 39 top English judges, and ambassadors in the
15 most important diplomatic missions abroad. Of the 200 richest people in
Britain no fewer than 35 had attended Eton. Eton and Winchester continue to
dominate the public school scene, and the wider world beyond. As Sampson
asks, 'Can the products of two schools (Winchester and Eton), it might be
asked, really effectively represent the other 99.5 per cent of the people
in this diverse country who went to neither mediaeval foundation?' The
concept of service was once at the heart of the public school ethos, but it
is questionable whether it still is. A senior Anglican bishop noted in
1997, 'A headmaster told me recently that the whole concept of service had
gone. Now they all want to become merchant bankers and lawyers.'
There are two arguments that qualify the merit of the public schools,
apart from the criticism that they are socially divisive. It is
inconceivable that the very best intellectual material of the country
resides solely among those able to attend such schools. If one accepts that
the brightest and best pupils are in fact spread across the social
spectrum, one must conclude that an elitist system of education based
primarily upon wealth rather than ability must involve enormous wastage.
The other serious qualification regards the public school ethos which is so
rooted in tradition, authority and a narrow idea of 'gentlemanly'
professions. Even a century after it tried to turn its pupils into
gentlemen, the public school culture still discourages, possibly
unconsciously, its pupils from entering industry. 'It is no accident,'
Sampson comments, 'that most formidable industrialists in Britain come from
right outside the public school system, and many from right outside
Britain.'
Britain will be unable to harness its real intellectual potential
until it can break loose from a divisive culture that should belong in the
past, and can create its future elite from the nation's schoolchildren as a
whole. In 1996 a radical Conservative politician argued for turning public
schools into centres of excellence which would admit children solely on
ability, regardless of wealth or social background, with the help of
government funding. It would be a way of using the best of the private
sector for the nation as a whole. It is just such an idea that Labour might
find attractive, if it is able to tackle the more widespread and
fundamental shortcomings of the state education system.
Further and higher education
«P
reparation for adult life» includes training in the skills required for a
job. These skills can be pitched at different levels - highly job-specific
and not requiring much thought in their application, or «generalisable» and
applicable to different kinds of employment.
Vocational courses are concerned with the teaching of job-related
skills, whether specific or generalisable. They can be based in industry,
and «open learning» techniques make this increasingly likely, although in
the past, they have normally been taught in colleges of further education,
with students given day release from work. Vocational training has not been
an activity for schools. But some critics think that schools should provide
it for non-academic pupils. One major initiative back in 1982, was the
Technical and Vocational Education Initiative (TVEI) in which schools
received money if they were able to build into the curriculum vocationally-
related content ant activities - more technology, business studies,
industry related work and visits, etc. But all this got lost in 1988 with
the imposition of a National Curriculum was reformed, providing
opportunities for vocational studies to be introduced at 14.
But the real changes in vocational training were to be seen outside
the schools. The curriculum in colleges of further education has been
closely determined by vocational examination bodies which decide what the
student should be able to do in order to receive a qualification as, for
example, a plumber or a hairdresser. These qualifications were pitched at
different levels - from relatively low-skilled operative to higher-skilled
craft and technician. Obtaining these qualifications often required an
apprenticeship, with day release in a college of further education for more
theoretical study.
Vocational training always has had a relatively low status in
Britain. The «practical» and the «vocational» have seldom given access to
university or to the prestigious and professional jobs.
Further education has traditionally been characterised by part-time
vocational courses for those who leave school at the age of 16 but need to
acquire a skill, be that in the manual, technical or clerical field. In
all, about three million students enrol each year in part-time courses at
further education (FE) colleges, some released by their employers and a
greater number unemployed. In addition there have always been a much
smaller proportion in full-time training. In 1985 this figure was a meagre
400,000, but by 1995 this had doubled. Given Labour's emphasis on improving
the skills level of all school-leavers, this expansion will continue.
Vocational training, most of which is conducted at the country's 550
further education colleges is bound to be an important component.
Higher education has also undergone a massive expansion. In 1985 only
573,000, 16 per cent of young people, were enrolled in full-time higher
education. Ten years later the number was 1,150,000, no less than 30 per
cent of their age group.
This massive expansion was achieved by greatly enlarging access to
undergraduate courses, but also by authorising the old polytechnics to
grant their own degree awards, and also to rename themselves as
universities. Thus there are today 90 universities, compared with 47 in
