Squabbling schools
From Alistair Cooke Sir: Terence Kealey (‘Science is for posh kids’, 5 February) asks why learning should be restricted to the few. We all know the chief culprits: Labour politicians and some Tories in the 1960s and 1970s. But blame also attaches to the independent schools where a lucky 7 per cent are educated. Most of them are charities able to raise and spend money on favourable terms that could be used to extend serious learning to more of the children who are denied it in the state sector. Greater variety would mean more schools charging fees within the reach of more families.
To their credit, some leading boarding schools have offered to educate children in care more cheaply than the state can, only to be put off by the government. Such initiatives come rarely. Independent schools have the misfortune to be represented by an alphabet soup of organisations too preoccupied with their own petty rivalries to face up to the big issues. Will the Headmasters’ and Headmistresses’ Conference alter its rules to admit girls-only schools? the Girls’ Schools Association frets. The introspection of independent schools is one of the disasters of our time.
Alistair Cooke London SW1
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