Chalkface reported recently on the UK Labour Party’s new policy to abolish private schools in the UK as a way of increasing equity in education. There has been much negative reaction to this proposed policy as shown by this recent article in The Independent.
Jeremy Corbyn’s party voted at their conference to integrate all private schools into the state sector if they win the next election. Boris Johnson (The UK prime Minister) also called it a “pointless attack” on the education system, adding that it was based on a “long-buried socialist ideology.”
The policy would see properties and funds held by private schools would be “redistributed democratically and fairly” across the country’s educational institutions as part of the reforms. Private schools’ charitable status would also be scrapped and universities forced to limit their intake of privately educated students to just 7 per cent – the same proportion as in the wider population.
The plans were also criticised by a headteachers’ union leader who said the idea was “fraught with problems” and argued that it was probably “entirely unworkable.”
What do you think? Would abolishing private schools make education more equitable or would it just lower the overall standards of UK education?
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