Sir: A. N. Wilson, an arts man, supports the notion
(Diary, 20 April) that scientists are half-men; but his facile approach to basic economics suggests he would in fact need far more than a fortnight to 'get up' simple arithmetic, let alone science.
If the gross annual fees received by two proprietors of a school are £300,000, that is very far from working out 'at £150,000 per teacher, per annum'. All it means, if there are 60 pupils, is that on average the fees are £5,000 per pupil — or £1,667 per term.
Mr Wilson queries whether the head- master of Eton, where the fees are £3,132 per term, gets paid £150,000 for looking after 1,100 boys. If Mr Wilson were bursar, presumably omitting to count all 1,276 boys on the school's list this half, he would pay Dr Anderson a salary of £10,335,600. The surplus of £1.65 million or so received for the 176 boys not counted by Mr Wilson might not go very far in paying the rest of the staff.
A. M. Rentoul
25 Strawberry Hill Road, Twickenham, Middlesex
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