Why parents choose to opt out of the State system

There are many reasons why parents choose to opt out of the State system and send their children to private schools. Some are opposed to mixed schooling (most private schools are single-sex, at least until the age of 16); some are opposed to the comprehensive system, believing that, for example, mixed-ability classes do not make the best provision for the most and lеast аble children. Others believe that there are social advantages to be gained from attending certain schools, particularly the exclusive public schools, which are, despite their misleading name, the most expensive day or boarding schools in Britain. These parents therefore feel they ought to make substantial financial sacrifices to give their children a good start in life, as can be seen from the following article by Joe Irving with the headline But How Do We Pay the Fees? published in The Sunday Times.

Private education has become one of Britain’s liveliest growth sectors. More and more parents seem prepared to take on the formidable extra cost of buying the kind of education they prefer for their children. The result is that fee-paying schools throughout the country are full, and many have long waiting lists.

This is particularly so with day schools, which are now reflecting a changing pattern in the approach to education. Many children are getting the best of both worlds by spending their primary school years within the State system, then moving into a fee-paying school, and sometimes finishing off in a State school.

Just how much value parents place on what they consider to be an adequate education for their children will be indicated in a survey to be published within the next few weeks which is believed to be the first of its kind.

Three hundred clients of a firm of school fees specialists were questioned, and their answers reveal that the average family among them expects to spend a total of £28 246 on education over the years. This average family is currently spending £1 616 a year on educating its 2,2 children aged 8¹/₂. (In the total figure, inflation is taken into account.)

Average parental income was £12 956 a year, though many of the families surveyed earned considerably less than this. To pay school fees, 83% of parents cut down on their household expenditure, mainly holidays and travel. Nearly 40% of fee-paying families or those contemplating fees in the future had to find ways of increasing the household income: in most cases this meant the wife going out to work. A lucky 29% were helped out by generous relatives, principally the children's grandparents.

Meanwhile, as the specialist company finishes its analysis of the countrywide survey, managing director Gilbert McNeill-Moss reports that the firm’s Regent Street office is up to the eyeballs in work.

Confirmation of the rising interest in private education comes from another school fees specialist, who says, “We are dealing with more enquiries than ever before. And one thing is certain – the high cost of private education is not putting people off. Many enquiries seem to be from people who are worried about the quality of State education in their areas”.

The latest annual survey of the private sector by the Independent Schools Information Service (ISIS) puts the average fees at a boys’ day school at around £940 a year. At a girls’ day school they are about £800. This year fees have been kept to increases of less than 3% a term. This does no more than keep up with inflation and does not take care of higher salaries and soaring administration costs.

Antonia Zerbisias. The Sunday Times. 2001

Educational Challenges

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