Wednesday, October 07, 2009

Independent Schools Keep Degrees Going

Tony Blair came to power proclaiming "Education, education, education" as his top three priorities. Both David Cameron and Gordon Brown continue to proclaim it as their own key policy areas. Well, they're going to have to do a lot more than simply produce impressive rhetoric, if a report commissioned by the Headmaster's Conference (an Independent School body) is anything to go by.

The report points to a continued over-representation of independent school pupils in key degree areas such as modern languages, engineering and economics. Not because the universities are hugely biased towards the independent sector - we know that it is quite the opposite - but because it is the only sector able to provide students with viable A-level qualifications in these subject areas. While the ideas of academic rigour, and academically focused reform, remain alien ones to both parties, they will continue to betray state school students in favour of the private sector, whatever their fine words suggest.

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