Whilst I understand the ideological dogma of the Labour party attempting to redistribute wealth in a plural society, I have issues with them ‘trying to make the rich… poor, in-order to make the poor… rich’.
All this does is to stoke up the toxic ‘politics of envy’ amongst the social classes, which is divisive and can be the source of great social unrest.
If you will forgive me saying, I think the Labour Party has a fundamental misconception on these issues and has ‘the dog by the tail instead of the head’.
Allow me to explain. Contrary to the soundbites espoused by Labour politicians, probably not a farthing will be raised by the change in charitable status of private schools and the imposition of VAT.
CAPITAL PROJECTS
When you take account of the reclaims that existing private schools will initiate for capital projects carried out over many years (together with the additional expenditure that will be needed on state schools) in-order to manage the avalanche of displaced pupils from the private sector, there will be no money generated to pay for extra teachers.
We all know that the recruitment of teachers for any school (either in the private or state sector) is very difficult today as there is an acute shortage of these skills.
You can’t just snap your fingers and say, “Hey presto!” and they will appear.
To recruit the increased numbers that are required, you will have to offer them substantially raised salaries and even then, it is a lengthy process.
FEEDING FRENZY
All that will happen in the forthcoming months will be a feeding frenzy for the few state schools available in any one area and as such, class sizes will balloon, whilst the teacher/pupil ratios will reach new, unmanageable levels.
This will deleteriously affect the standards of education in the state schools which will render them even less productive in terms of results, than their counterparts in the private sector. Surely this is the antithesis of what is required.
The wealthier parents of private pupils will still be able to pay the extra costs, and they will be fine, but the ‘JAM’ (just about managing) groups, will be forced to uproot their children and both pupils and parents will have to suffer the associated trauma that this completely unnecessary, disruptive, process will inevitably provoke.
The expansion of state schools will never be organised in the time given and, undoubtedly, this is a classic lose-lose scenario for the government, for the pupils and for the most valuable part of this nations national treasure, i.e., children’s education.
Sadly, we all know that kicking private schools is a gratifying sport to the left-wing zealots of the Labour Party, since they believe that all the pupils are privileged and wealthy, which shares its roots in the reasons for antisemitism.
THE SOLUTION
Not only should VAT not be imposed on private schools, but a tax rebate should also be offered (on a means tested basis) to the parents, to encourage them to send their children to these schools, since every pupil who doesn’t go to the local state school, will mean that the standard of education of the latter, will be higher.
We all know that the problem with state schools is that they are universally over-subscribed and under-funded and this simple measure would certainly try and help to alleviate this issue.
“Private and state-run institutions should happily co-exist and enjoy the symbiotic benefits between them.”
As private healthcare takes the pressure off the over-burdened NHS, we need to help the Labour Party ‘get out of its own way’ by understanding that the private and state-run institutions should very happily co-exist and enjoy the symbiotic benefits between them.
With less pressure on the state schools, teacher/pupil ratios will be better and before you look around, the standards of education will rise predictably and very soon will be at parity with the private sector, particularly if they receive more state funding.
HISTORY REPEATING ITSELF
History seems to be repeating itself. I was schooled in a state grammar, Quintin, in St Johns Wood, which was an excellent institution with an old boy spirit and a European class basketball team.
The adjoining secondary modern school, Kynaston (which taught trades), was also an excellent place of learning and both had high standards of discipline.
When the Labour Party imposed the comprehensive system, both schools joined and the standards of discipline dropped precipitously, resulting in the headmaster being ‘beaten up’, the geography teacher running off with the school trip money and Jihadi John (one of the most hideous middle east terrorists) was their star pupil.
“The reputation was closer to borstal than a studious place of learning.”
The name changed from Quintin Kynaston to QK to now, The Harris Academy, and the reputation was closer to borstal than a studious place of learning.
We are already receiving requests to buy properties within the local state schools’ orbit in-order for the children to qualify for an application.
I’m not sure this will be significant enough to change values but there is definitely a trend there.
The Labour government seems to have learnt nothing from their past poor history in terms of education and sadly, pupils have become the more recent pawns in this unfortunate game.
When will they learn?
Trevor Abrahmsohn is Founder and Director of Glentree International
