Private schools keep the class divide

         Private schools are very much in the news, with lots of talk about the unfairness of people paying to get a better education for their children.
        I would like to call a spade a spade and say the thing that no-one else dares to say.
            "It is not about education - It is about class".
       Going to a private school in Britain, is the passport to being posh - it is the entry to the upper classes - and it always has been
       Parents who consider themselves posh and those who want to be posh know this. I have seen families who have been posh for generations (but who have fallen on hard times) go to the most extreme lengths to send their child to a posh school, if only for the last 2 years. When they were already getting a very good education where they where.
       Going to a private school will  (they hope) rid their child of a regional accent (Scottish if you are in Scotland) better than any elocution lessons and produce that longed for english yah accent which is a requirement of that class. They will also make friends with and marry similar people and become part of that great upper class countywide network.
        I went to a private convent boarding school. It was said quite openly and with admiration, that the nun who was headmistress ruled with the Bible in one hand and a copy of Who's Who in the other.
        Private schooling is the biggest factor behind Britain's class divide. Get rid of private schools and you would get rid of the class divide. If it were done in one go, over night, I think in a crazy way it would be a huge relief for many of the parents. Most of them can't really afford the fees, they are only doing it because every one else is.
        I worked as a school doctor in the private sector and it was quite clear to me that many children at private schools actually get a much worse deal than those in the state sector. In a private school any  child having any kind of problem is quietly required to go elsewhere. They don't want their league tables affected and they don't want to pay for any form of effective remedial  help.
       State schools cannot get rid of pupils and therefore a huge range of services are available for pupils experiencing difficulties. I fought very hard for my pupils to get those same services, arguing that they were paying the same taxes as anyone else, but with little effect.
       But what do you do if you live in the catchment area of a really bad state school? People that can, move to the catchment area of a good state school and there are many. The trouble is - that puts house prices up in that area and produces affluent ghettos, perhaps another form of class divide.
       This could be fixed by government insisting that all state schools reach the same high standard and certainly they are trying to do this in England.
       But - removing all private schools overnight could never happen - it is all pie in the sky.
       Because - suddenly the government would have to find funds to educate all those extra children  - which most conveniently it does not have to do at present, and there is not enough money in the kitty.