This house believes private schools should be abolished
The New Statesman | UK politics and culture
The New Statesman
4.4 • 1.4K Ratings
🗓️ 21 May 2025
⏱️ 52 minutes
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Summary
Seven per cent of British children attend private school – a tiny minority – and yet they retain a grip on our elite institutions. The latest figures show that 65% of judges, 44% of newspaper columnists and 23% of MPs were independently educated.
Fee-paying schools, however, do not merely cater for the privileged few, but hard-working aspirational parents who want the best for their children. They also allow for a quality that is essential in all aspects of raising children: choice. Is this two-tier system an archaic injustice that needs total reform? Or is it the route to a better education for all?
This debate was recorded at the Cambridge Literary Festival. You can watch and listen to more on cambridgeliteraryfestival.com
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | In homes across the UK, children are going without the very basics, a bed to sleep in, warm clothes to wear, a fridge to keep food fresh. |
| 0:10.0 | These are children with a range of complex needs. |
| 0:13.0 | Some use wheelchairs, some communicate in non-verbal ways, and others need support throughout the day and night. Their parents, already full-time |
| 0:23.0 | carers, are being forced into impossible choices, heat or eat, a bed or school shoes, a working |
| 0:29.6 | oven, or money for rent. We're asking you for your help to give them what they urgently need. |
| 0:36.8 | Family Fund supports families living on a low-income, |
| 0:40.3 | raising disabled or seriously ill children and young people across the UK. With your support, |
| 0:47.3 | family fund can provide a range of grants for essential items like beds, fridges, washing machines, |
| 0:53.3 | clothing, shoes and more. |
| 0:56.0 | No family should have to go without the essentials for their children. |
| 1:00.0 | You can make a difference. |
| 1:02.0 | Donate today at family fund.org. |
| 1:05.0 | Or search family fund donate. |
| 1:08.0 | Thank you. |
| 1:10.0 | The New Statesman Family Fund Donate. Thank you. |
| 1:13.8 | The New Statesman. |
| 1:21.1 | Many would argue that Britain's education system perpetuates inequality. |
| 1:29.4 | Seven percent of UK children attend private schools, yet these institutions receive around three times the funding per student as the average state school. Privately educated people dominate our elite institutions too, |
| 1:37.2 | making up 65% of senior judges and 29% of members of Parliament. However, fee-paying schools don't merely cater for the privileged few, |
| 1:48.2 | but also for hard-working aspirational parents, |
| 1:52.0 | making significant financial sacrifices to scrape together the fees. |
| 1:57.6 | Private schools, it can be argued, are an essential safety valve for an increasingly stretched and underfunded state school system. |
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