The state of the private sector

Civitas, 4 May 2007

We learn today that despite a 5.9% rise in school fees, the independent sector is thriving. Annual figures published by the Independent Schools Council (ISC) have garnered particular attention this year, with the chairman of the ISC, Nigel Richardson, suggesting that private schools are finding themselves especially in demand because they ‘are providing something that in less complicated times families might have been better able to provide for themselves’. What Mr Richardson refers to is the time parents spend with their children. But does the private sector’s appeal for parents not lie in something much simpler: a generally superior standard of education?

Although the number of very young children – under 4 year-olds – enrolled in private nurseries has seen an increase which is unequivocally related to work schedules, the sector witnessing the greatest rise in private schools is the one catering for the more self-sufficient 16-19 year-olds. What is more, when we move from childcare to formal education, there has been a drop up to the age of 16.
Let’s take a closer look at the figures. For infants, 2005-06 saw an increase in the number sent to private nurseries. This is certainly connected to the pressures that families are under for both parents to work. Linked to this were figures published today by Scottish Widows. According to the financial services company, the cost of living is now so high that over 11 million households are dependent on more than one salary to make ends meet. High mortgages, bills and council taxes are forcing many parents, mothers in particular, back into the labour force before they are ready to leave their often very young children. With the majority of nurseries currently private this helps explain the increase in private nursery rolls. The decline in the number of 5-16 year-olds – 1626 in 2005/06 – on the other hand, doesn’t lend much support to the thesis that busy parents are suddenly depositing their children into private schools for the pastoral element. That the number of sixth form pupils has, by contrast, risen, points to the fact that parents are turning to the private sector for that crucial stage in pupils’ education which is most likely to impact on their adult lives. In line with this, the ISC reports that independent heads attribute the increase in attendance to private sixth forms to the ‘desire for specialist teaching that may not be available in the state sector, to boost students’ university entrance chances’. So it seems more likely that it’s the good education in the private sector which is attracting parents rather than, as the BBC puts it, the pursuit of ‘home substitutes’.