Independent school UK: Encyclopedia II - Independent school UK - Criticisms

Independent school UK - Criticisms

While, under the best circumstances, independent schools generally and public schools in particular were superb examples of education, historically the reliance on corporal punishment and the prefect system could also make them a cruel and hostile environment.

The classics-based curriculum was also criticised for not providing skills in sciences or engineering. It was Martin Wiener's opposition to this tendency which inspired his 1981 polemic "English Culture and the Decline of the Industrial Spirit: 1850-1980". It became a huge influence on the Thatcher government's opposition to old-school gentlemanly Toryism.

The Thatcher government introduced the Assisted Places Scheme in England and Wales in 1980, whereby the state paid the school fees of those students capable of gaining a place but unable to afford the fees. This was essentially a response to the decision of the previous Labour government in the mid-1970s to remove government funding of direct-grant grammar schools, most of which then became private schools; some Assisted Places students went to the former direct-grant schools such as Manchester Grammar School. The scheme was terminated by the Labour government in 1997, since when the private sector has moved to increase its own means-tested bursaries.

A criticism leveled by many parents is that they believe their rights as well as their children’s are often compromised by vague and one-sided contracts which give Heads a lot of wiggle room to unfairly use their discretionary powers, such as in expulsion on non-disciplinary matters. They believe independent schools should embrace the principles of natural justice as adopted by the state sector, and private law as applied to Higher Education^[8].

Adapted from the Wikipedia article "Criticisms", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki