Private schools don’t act like charities, so let’s strip them of the benefits | Frances Ryan

In subsidising wealthy people instead of helping poor children, they perpetuate inequality in education and beyond

As teenagers find out their exam results after what’s been a particularly stressful A-level year, I can’t help but think of how different the experience may be depending on whether your parent is, say, a cleaner or a barrister.

Ministers have been accused of a “total and abject failure” to widen access to top universities for disadvantaged students, after analysis by the Labour party found the proportion attending Russell Group universities had increased by only one percentage point since 2010. At the same time, educational charities warned this week that middle-class pupils and their parents were increasingly using university clearing to shop around for the best courses, to the detriment of their less well-off peers. This is the same old story; as with every other advantage wealth in education creates, those with affluent parents and schools can play the clearing system ahead of their poorer peers.

Continue reading...

from Voluntary Sector Network | The Guardian https://ift.tt/2KVRq0R