Your leader of 25 August concludes with a call for a “genuine transformation” of the education system in order to make it more equal. However, before any transformation can be effected, we need to abandon the idea that the chief purpose of education is competitive personal advancement, and replace it with the idea that education is a public good which benefits us all. As to what measures would be genuinely transformative:
1. Make fee-paying schools illegal, except in special circumstances, and end selection at 11. Finland has done this without detriment to its standards.
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