The need to dismantle the “Berlin Wall” between private and state schools has long been a point of discussion on left and right. In an issue earlier this year, entitled “The 7 per cent problem”, the New Statesman explored this subject in depth, publishing a widely-read essay by David and George Kynaston. A leader the following week questioned why, in contrast to Michael Gove, Labour had been largely silent on how it aspired to narrow the divide.
But in a speech tomorrow morning at Walthamstow Academy, shadow education secretary Tristram Hunt will change that. He will vow to end the “corrosive divide” in education by making the £700m currently received by private schools in business rates relief (larger than the amount they receive through their charitable status) conditional on them meeting minimum standards of partnership with the state sector. At present, he will warn: “The only possible answer to whether they earn their £700m subsidy is a resounding and unequivocal ‘no’.” Too often, the benefits provided by private schools to their communities are limited to entrance to displays and exhibitions or the annual use of sporting facilities.
Under Hunt’s plan, they will need to do far more to justify the retention of their subsidy. As part of a new “Schools Partnership Standard”, private schols will be required to:
– Provide qualified teachers in specialist subjects to state schools.
– Share expertise to help state school students get into top universities.
– Run joint extra-curricular programmes where the state schools is an equal partner so children can mix and sectors learn from each other.
It’s a radical and potentially transformative plan. Labour has pledged to amend the 1988 Local Government Act to make business rate relief conditional on partnership, and to also amend the Education Act and the Independent Schools Regulations to establish the criteria on which private schools will be judged. Non-compliance or failure to demonstrate effective partnership will result in private schools losing their eligibility for business rate relief, incurring a cost that could run into hundreds of thousands of pounds.
Hunt will say: “There can be little doubt that Britain is an increasingly divided country. I want to talk about one of those sources of division within British life. A divide that has become emblematic of a country run for the benefit of the privileged few not the many. The divide between private and state education.
“If we are to prosper as a country, we need to be a more equal country. If we are to make the most of the wealth of talent that exists in every school and every community, we need to give every child a chance. And if we are to be a country which works for most people, we need to break down the divisions in our school system with concerted, collaborative and co-ordinated action from the entire English educational landscape – including the private sector.
“I know I am not the first to say this. We have a Prime Minister who makes a virtue merely of pointing out this divide exists. But the crucial difference is this: I mean it.”
Noting figures showing that just three per cent of private schools sponsor an academy, while only a further five per cent loan teaching staff to state schools, and a mere third share facilities, he will add: “The only possible answer to whether they earn their £700m subsidy is a resounding and unequivocal ‘no’.
“Over the last few years we have seen the limitations of asking private schools politely. So the next government will say to them: step up and play your part. Earn your keep. Because the time you could expect something for nothing is over’.”
And on Labour’s new Schools Partnership Standard, he will say: “I realise that to some this may seem an unnecessarily tough test. But that is not because I want to penalise private education but because I want to make sure we break down the barriers holding Britain back.
“I passionately believe we deserve an education system where the majority of young people enjoy the same access to excellence as the privileged 7 per cent; where disadvantaged pupils no longer feel any anxiety or insecurity at aspiring towards success because they feel success belongs to them; and where our children experience equality of opportunity rather than just learn it is one of our core values.”But most of all I want us to become a country where we no longer feel the need to point out how few state educated members there are in the top universities, professions and sports teams because that description simply no longer rings true.
“That is the prize we are chasing with this new partnership. And believe me: clawing back business rate relief will be a poor consolation if we do not bring it about.”
Hunt’s intervention will not be welcomed by all. Some on the right will argue that the proposed conditions are too onerous and will warn that the loss of business rate relief would push up fees. Others will point to Hunt’s private schooling at University College School and level the charge of “hypocrisy” (as David Cameron has before). The left, meanwhile, will criticise Labour for not simply scrapping business rate relief and private schools’ charitable status altogether. But after Hunt’s speech, no one will be able to argue that the party is not thinking creatively about how to solve one of the defining problems of the English education system.
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