Private schooling boosts social mobility of less-advantaged children, study finds
Neil Puffett
Friday, October 4, 2013
A charity has called for improved access to private schooling for less-advantaged children after a major study highlighted lasting benefits.
Research by the Wales Institute for Social and Economic Research found that an assisted places scheme run by the Sutton Trust led to better qualifications and well-paid jobs.
Under the scheme, which ran from 1982 to 1997, young people from less-advantaged homes were supported to go to independent schools after means testing.
In the latest of a series of surveys, assisted place holders told academics that they felt their schools helped them develop strong personal attributes, such as self-discipline and self-reliance, as well as enduring social networks.
More than 40 per cent were found to be earning more than £90,000 a year and more than two-thirds said the economic crisis had not affected their standard of living.
Three-quarters of respondents expected to be even better off in ten years’ time.
Sir Peter Lampl, chairman of the Sutton Trust, said independent schools should run open-access schemes that enable more children from low and middle-income families to attend them, based on ability rather than having the means to pay.
“This new research with the assisted places group confirms the extent to which able children from less-advantaged homes gain from an independent school education.
“It shows the importance of ensuring that access to the best independent day schools is not restricted to those who can afford to pay full fees.
He said that the assisted places scheme had been “too limited in its reach”, because the small number of places in each school resulted in many students feeling socially out of place.
“Under open access, all the places at participating independent day schools would be available on merit alone, with parents paying a sliding scale of fees according to means,” he said.
“This would make a major contribution to social mobility by opening up independent day schools to all young people, enabling them not only to thrive academically but also to gain the social skills and access to the networks that are crucial to success.”
Independent schools came in for criticism yesterday when Ofsted chief inspector Sir Michael Wilshaw said too many do too little in helping state school pupils.
He has urged independent schools to do more to help neighbouring state schools improve standards.
