A Revolution Betrayed
How Egalitarians Wrecked the British Education System
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There are few subjects these days that cause parents more stress than the education of their children.
In his new book, Peter Hitchens describes the misjudgements made by politicians over the years that have led to the increase of class distinction and privilege in our education system. This is of course the opposite of what was intended, especially by former Minister of Education Shirley Williams and Margaret Thatcher, her successor in that role, who closed down many more Grammar Schools than Williams.
Given that the cost of private secondary education is now in the region of £50,000 a year and the cream of Comprehensive Schools are now oversubscribed (William Ellis, Camden School for Girls, The Oratory, Cardinal Vaughan), parents are spending thousands on private tutoring and fee-paying prep schools in order to get their children into these academically excellent schools. Meanwhile hypocritical Labour politicians like Diane Abbott send their children to expensive private day schools. So, what alternatives – if any – are there?
Peter Hitchens argues that in trying to bring about an educational system which is egalitarian, the politicians have created a system which is the exact opposite. And what's more, it is a system riddled with anomalies - Sixth Form Colleges select pupils on ability at the age of 15, which rules out any child who does not have major educational backing from home (heavy involvement by working parents or private tutors, for example) and academies also are selective, though they pretend not to be.
This is an in-depth look at the British education system and what will happen if things don't change radically.
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Mail on Sunday columnist Hitchens (The Abolition of Britain) contends in this cranky screed that efforts to level the playing field in British education have backfired. In the 1960s, critics asserted that grammar schools ("state secondary schools that selected their pupils on merit and charged no fees") were entrenching class divisions and unfairly determining a child's life "by a single test at the age of 11." The criticism led, Hitchens contends, to "a huge decline in secondary education," exacerbated by "a new system of selection by wealth": students who cannot afford to attend one of England's fee-paying public schools are subjected to unrigorous "common" schools, where "the old canon of expected and accepted knowledge, in literature and history, has been mocked, deconstructed and replaced." Hitchens dives deep into the history of British education and the political battles waged over the distribution and funding of grammar schools, but readers without a background in the subject will find themselves lost in a sea of obscure names and legislation. Though he pinpoints inequalities and discrepancies within the current system, Hitchens's condescension toward comprehensive school educators grates, and he fails to seriously consider how socioeconomic factors, rather than "parental hostility or indifference to education," may affect student performance. This provocation misfires.
