Privatization and Privilege in Education (RLE Edu L)

Geoffrey Walford

• Publisher: Taylor & Francis
• Year: 2012
• eBook ISBN: 9781136461521
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Education
• Subtopic: Education General

Can privilege be bought? Arguments have raged over whether private education in the UK is 'the cement in the wall' dividing British society, or whether parental choice is, as has also been argued 'a key component of a free society'. The author here describes the traditional private sector schools, paying attention to the ways in which parents can purchase privilege for their children through attendance at such schools. He argues that the privatized system is kept under tight control if a growth in social and educational inequality and a deepening of social class and ethnic group division is to be avoided.

The book is unique in combining an account of private schools in Britain with an examination of the process of privatization.

Chapter one

Private schools

What is a private school?

The first step in mapping and understanding the private sector is to try to answer the deceptively simple question of definition. In Britain the term ‘private school’ is not the one most commonly used, and the term ‘independent school’ now has a far greater prominence. ‘Independent’ is also now the term used by the Department of Education and Science, which defines an independent school as one providing education for five or more school-age children and not being maintained by the state. The term ‘private’ has been used in this book for three reasons. First, it is the term most used in practically every other country for schools other than those provided and financed by the state (Walford, 1989). Second, as will be shown in chapter four, ‘independent’ is far from being a satisfactory description of the relationship between the state and these schools, for in recent years they have become increasingly dependent upon government financial and ideological support. Third, the distinction between schools classified as independent and those classified as state maintained is being blurred as a result of recent government education policy. One of the main aims of this book is to argue that this process is best understood as an example of privatization.

The choice of terminology used to describe these schools is far from being a neutral decision. Each term is ideologically loaded, none more so than the now less frequently used ‘public school’. There is no legal or even agreed definition of what a public school is. The term is a contested accolade, and even its origin is in dispute. Some argue that it is derived from the fact that many of the ancient schools established in the fourteenth, fifteenth, and sixteenth centuries were originally founded to provide free education for the poor. However, there is a debate about how poor the children were expected to be, and in several cases it may mean no more than ‘not exceedingly rich’ (Walford, 1986a: 6). Other writers argue that these schools became known as public in that they replaced the private tutors of the aristocratic household. Another explanation is that the statutes of some schools allowed a certain number of fee-paying pupils (who were thus from the public, if only from a limited range of it) as well as those scholars on the foundation. Finally, some writers argue that public schools are so called because they are open to pupils from all over the country and not just from the local neighbourhood.

The Clarendon Commission of 1861, which investigated the horrendous state into which some of the endowed schools had by then fallen, acted as a marker defining nine schools as ‘Great or Public Schools’. These were Charterhouse, Eton, Harrow, Merchant Taylors’, Rugby, St Paul's, Shrewsbury, Westminster, and Winchester. Merchant Taylors’ and St Paul's were day schools. Honey (1977) claims that the use of the term gradually spread as other schools were recognized as equals by schools from within the nine. Regular sports fixtures, especially in cricket, were a key part in this acceptance of status. By the 1960s membership of the Headmasters’ Conference was usually taken as indicating that a school might call itself a public school if it wished. But, by that time, some schools were becoming wary of using the term, for it carried with it associations of elitism and privilege at a time when these were unfashionable.

As Rae (1981) argues, ‘that the term “public school” should be obsolescent is something of a triumph for the schools’ public relations . . . Few British people could be expected to rally to the defence of the public schools, but independence was a wider and much more fundamental issue.’ The major schools joined with the majority of the other private-sector schools to present an image of ‘independence’, which brought into the debate questions of freedom of choice and individual liberty. The Independent Schools Information Service (ISIS) and the Independent Schools Joint Council (ISJC) were formed to present the views of the whole sector to the public, to politicians and to policy-makers, and both bodies have been very successful.

Some critics have wished to use other terms to describe the schools, such as ‘fee-paying’ or ‘commercial’ (Halsey, 1981), which stress the market basis of these schools, but the term ‘private’ has increasingly come to be the most appropriate one to describe the sector. One of the major features of the three Thatcher governments has been the privatization of a whole host of companies and welfare services formerly in the hands of the state. In the government's eyes ‘private’ has come to be associated with greater individual choice and freedom, innovation, and efficiency. Yet, at the same time, the political left have come to associate ‘private’ and ‘privatization’ with the inequality, exploitation, and individualistic competitiveness which they perceive the government's policies promote. Thus, while the official nomenclature is in terms of independent schools, the ‘private’ designation would appear to be the most appropriate to use here.

Diversity within the private sector

The private education sector is highly diverse. At the macro descriptive level there are a growing number of schools which are co-educational, while some schools still cater for boys only and others for girls only. In contrast to what may be the usual assumption, some two-thirds of the schools are for day pupils only, and most of those with accommodation for boarders also accept day pupils. An equally fundamental distinction concerns the age range of pupils in the schools. While there is a growth in the number of schools establishing facilities to cater for all school-age pupils, most schools provide for a more limited range, although the ages of transfer do not always coincide with the primary/secondary division in the state maintained sector. As might be expected, the geographical distribution of schools is very uneven, there being far more schools in the south than in the north of England, and a concentration of schools in urban areas.

Information on such obvious variables is valuable, but the most fruitful way of describing the diversity of the sector is through a consideration of the various organizations of which the schools are members. Both historically and currently, the most important of these organizations is the Headmasters’ Conference.

The Headmasters’ Conference

The Headmasters’ Conference has its origin in Edward Thring's proposal in 1869 for a regular meeting of headmasters of major endowed schools, who had been meeting irregularly before then, to develop a defence against the perceived threat to the independence of the endowed schools contained in the Endowed Schools (No. 2) Bill (Leinster-Mackay, 1987). Thirty-seven headmasters were invited to the first meeting, but only twelve attended. The following year, however, thirty-four Heads turned up, including the Heads from the seven public schools which had been defined and investigated by the Clarendon Commission. In 1871 a constitution was drawn up and it was resolved to establish an annual meeting of the headmasters of the ‘Highest Schools’, which included all schools of the ‘First Grade’, whether they were called public schools, endowed schools, proprietary schools, or colleges. In practice, the case for admission of a headmaster was judged by a committee on the basis of the number of boys in the school, the proportion who went on to university, and the degree of independence that the headmaster had in the running of the school. It was assumed at the start, and for many years after, that ‘First Grade’ schools were for boys only.

There were fifty schools with headmasters in membership of the HMC in 1871, rising to seventy-nine in 1886. After 1914 there was a limit of 150 members, which was raised to 200 in 1937 (Honey, 1977). By 1988 the nature and variety of the schools in membership had changed considerably from the early days. By that year there were 228 HMC schools (including 8 in the island of Ireland), with 149,000 pupils, including 23,000 girls. Only about 30 per cent of these pupils boarded. Even within this group of just over 200 schools there is considerable diversity. They range in size from about 310 at Mount St Mary's to nearly 1,300 at Eton. Some have histories dating back to the fifteenth century or earlier, some were founded in the mid-nineteenth century to educate the sons of the rising middle class who found their wealth in the rapid industrialization of the period, while others were founded in the 1920s just before the depression. Over seventy of the schools were at one time direct grant schools, most of which were for day pupils only and, as described in chapter three, only became fully independent again after the direct grant was phased out from 1975 onwards (Price, 1986). The average termly fees for all HMC schools in 1987/8 were £1,895 for full boarding and £784 for pupils in day-only schools (ISIS, 1988). At Stowe School termly fees were £2,355, and they were £2,331 at Winchester College. ‘Extras’ may be added to this.

While the ex-direct grant schools form one loose grouping within the HMC, the twenty-nine schools in membership of the Rugby or Eton Groups can be seen as another (Walford, 1986a). The Rugby Group of schools consists of seventeen of the major boarding schools. It was formed on an ad hoc basis in the 1960s to enable headmasters and senior masters at these schools to meet their opposite numbers in similar schools to discuss matters of common interest. The Eton Group started a little later and now has twelve schools but, unlike the Rugby Group, includes some schools where most of the pupils are not boarders. The list of twenty-nine schools includes Eton and Harrow, Westminster, Wellington and Winchester, and Radley, Repton, and Rugby. All but one of the twelve schools recognized by the Clarendon Commission as ‘great or public schools’ are included, and they can be usefully regarded as the ‘market leaders’.

There is also great diversity in religious affiliation, which can have a major effect on the ethos of the school. Nearly all the 100 or so schools in HMC where all or most of the pupils board have a direct connection with one of the Christian denominations. Ten of the schools are Roman Catholic – Ampleforth and Downside, for example, being still run by English Benedictine monks. Eight have links with the Methodist Church, two are Quaker, and about sixty are associated with the Church of England. Historically, a number of the latter schools were established in order to transmit a specific tradition within the Anglican Church. Thus Dean Close emphasized the evangelical tradition, while the Woodard schools, such as Lancing and Bloxham, held to the Anglo-Catholic persuasion. These original links have not necessarily been maintained to the present day.

Until the 1960s all HMC schools were for boys only. Schools which were recognized as having a similar standing, but which were co-educational, had been excluded on the basis that they took girls as well as boys. However, when Marlborough College, one of the leading schools, started to admit girls into its sixth form, the HMC was forced to accept that it would have to change its policy. While Marlborough's reasons for introducing girls were not financial, this does appear to have been a reason for some other schools making the change. For Marlborough and the other major schools the advantage was that they were able to attract girls of high academic ability who could boost the academic standing of the school (Walford, 1983). Girls were also often seen as a civilizing influence on the boys, and for some schools provided a welcome extension to the potential market. Change has been rapid, and by 1988 about seventy HMC schools were fully co-educational, while another eighty admitted some girls at sixth-form level only. More than half the HMC schools thus now admit girls.

The traditional age range for the boarding schools in HMC has been 13–18, but many of the schools catering predominantly for day pupils take pupils from 11. This is particularly true of the ex-direct grant schools in membership, which formerly had very close links with the maintained sector. However, the distinction is not fixed and there has been a tendency in recent years for boarding schools to accept pupils at 11 as well as 13, often in a special lower school or linked preparatory school.

The majority of sociological research and educational writing about private education has actually been concerned with just the HMC schools, rather than the full range. They have often been taken as synonymous with the ‘public’ schools. Though there are some very good reasons for this focus, it has meant that those outside the system, including politicians, have often received a distorted vision of the nature of private schooling. A further problem is that most of the sociological work is now out of date, as the major schools have changed considerably in the last few decades. Among the most important historical and educational studies are those by Bamford (1967), Chandos (1984), Dancy (1966), Gathorne-Hardy (1977), Honey (1977), MacDonald Fraser (1977), Mack (1941), Ogilvie (1957), Rae (1981), and Simon and Bradley (1975). The major sociological studies are Wakeford (1969), Walford (1986a), Weinberg (1967), and Wilkinson (1964). A major sociological study of boarding schools, which emphasized the HMC schools, was conducted by Lambert and co-workers in the late 1960s (Lambert, 1966; Lambert and Millham, 1968; Lambert et al., 1968; Lambert, 1975). As will be shown in chapter three, Lambert's early work influenced the findings of the Public Schools Commission, which reported in 1968.

The Girls’ Schools Association

For girls’ private schools the organization which is usually taken as somewhat analogous to the HMC is the Girls’ Schools Association (GSA) and the linked Governing Bodies of Girls’ Schools Association (GBGSA). Interestingly, the organization which was originally most closely analogous to the HMC, the Association of Headmistresses, founded by Frances Mary Buss in 1874, broadened its membership to include all headmistresses as the maintained sector developed. The improvement of girls’ education as a whole was seen as more important than any maintenance of exclusiveness (Price and Glenday, 1974). The Girls’ Schools Association, on the other hand, is restricted to headmistresses of private schools.

In 1988 there were 259 schools in membership of the GSA/GBGSA, with a considerable range in terms of size, academic emphasis, geography, religious affiliation, and so on. One area where there is less diversity than the HMC schools is in terms of the date of foundation of the schools, for the earliest date from the middle of the nineteenth century. The development of girls’ private secondary schools must be seen in the context of growing female emancipation through that century, and the work of a small number of educational pioneers. In 1850 the North London Collegiate School began under the headship of Frances Mary Buss, and with the collaboration of her parents and brothers. She created a school which became a model for girls’ education and helped to inspire the Girls’ Public Day School Company (later Trust), which in 1988 controlled twenty-four secondary schools (Reynolds, 1950). In a similar way, Dorothea Beale developed Cheltenham Ladies’ College when she became Head in 1858 of a school created some four years earlier. A third pioneer, Mary Eliza Porter, became the first headmistress of four major new schools between 1871 and 1880.

The major studies of girls’ schools are now all rather dated, but include Ollerenshaw's (1967) study of GBGSA schools, and Wober's (1971) account of girls’ boarding schools. This was part of the larger study of boarding schools conducted by Lambert and his colleagues. Sociological accounts are given by Delamont (1976a, b; 1984), who concentrates on interactionist perspectives, Okely (1978), whose work is semi-autobiographical, and the impressionistic work by Lamb and Pickthorne (1968).

Proportionally, fewer girls than bo...

Table of contents

• Front Cover
• Half Title
• Title Page
• Copyright
• Contents
• List of tables
• Acknowledgements
• Introduction
• 1   Private schools
• 2   Politics and private schools
• 3   Can you buy privilege?
• 4   Privatization
• 5   The 1988 Education Reform Act
• 6   Choice and freedom or structured inequality?
• References
• Index