Figure 1.--British private schools do not like using the term "private" because it suggests exclusivity for which they have been criticized. Eather they prefer to call themselves the "indepemndent sector". |
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Prep schools along with the public (private secondary schools) are the major components of Britain's private sector, but there are other types of private schools as well. Private schools educate about 5 percent of British children. The schools do not like the term private and prefer the term independent, meaning independent of the state system. Actally they are not entirely independent as they must meet state imposed standards covering both sacademic standards and pastoral care. The basic difference between the private and state schools is that the privatre schools are fee paying schools while the state schools are entirely tax supported. Another basic difference is that the private schools achieve far superior academic achievement with the children. Here itvis important to note that this is not because the private schools have far superior facilities. The physical plant at many state schools is often more extensive. The private schools, however, do focus on academic basics and maintain a relatively limoted classrom size and low teacher-student ratio.
Not that the independent system is all a "bed of roses", or that it can continue to produce these high standards without the desire and the capacity of our parents to pay for this education. Despite a fall in the birth rate and the suize of the average familythat sends their children to independent schools, this caopacity and desire to pay has been met wholeheartedly by many families, mainly by both parents working, also husbands and wives being taxed separately.
Headmaster's Editorial, The Down's School Record, 1979.
