What you pay for

The gulf between state education and independent schools grows wider every year, says Fraser Nelson – just look at the results

Why choose private education? For years — including five long ones spent at boarding school — I was convinced there was no good answer to this question. For my family, it was an obvious choice: my father had been dispatched to work in Cyprus, and his employer, the RAF, would pay for my boarding school fees if I wanted to stay in Scotland.

Even a 13-year-old could see the logic. But once there, it baffled me: why would parents who did have the choice spend so much money?

Now, as a parent, I know the answers all too well. The horrid truth is that an educational apartheid has arisen in England — the disparity in attainment between private schools and statefunded schools is the biggest of any country in the world save Brazil.

Since I graduated, in 1992, Britain’s state schools have been hurtling further and further down the world league tables. Ten years ago, England ranked fourth in the world for science, seventh for reading and eighth for maths. Last year’s figures show we’re now 16th for science, 25th for reading and 28th for maths — this despite a huge, unprecedented increase in government funding for state schools.

Meanwhile, Britain’s private schools have remained pretty much the best on the planet. The gap is impossible for any parent to ignore. One can, and should, get upset about this. It’s our tax money that’s being squandered, our children who are being shortchanged, our country that suffers. You can complain, vote for change, wish Michael Gove every success in his attempt to introduce more independent institutions into the public sector.

But for now, as Diane Abbott, Ruth Kelly and Polly Toynbee can attest, the desire to do what’s best by one’s children trumps any political consideration.