Education System Fueling Divisions Within Society, Suggests Survey

Market research with more than 2000 adults has suggested that many have concerns over the current levels of segregation in the education system. According to the survey, which was carried out for The Challenge Network, over two-thirds of respondents felt that the structure of the current education system was encouraging social divisions.

Almost two in five (37%) felt that fee-paying schools were a barrier to social mobility and a majority, seven in ten, felt that pupils at private schools would benefit from spending more time with those who attend other institutions. The Chief Executive of the Challenge Network, Craig Morley, stated that the lack of mixing between students studying at state schools and those at private and independent schools is leading to ‘worryingly high levels of segregation.’

Following the results, Dr Anthony Seldon, the Master of Wellington College in Berkshire, stated that the current state of the UK education system did little to combat segregation. He went on to state that the lack of integration between pupils at private and state schools helped to ‘fuel a social apartheid.’

David Levin, the headmaster of City of London School, had a similar outlook, noting that:

“Throughout our cities silo societies inhabit their own narrow ethnic, faith and income groups. London increasingly looks like Johannesburg where West Africans, Afro-Caribbeans, Pakistanis, Bengalis, Portuguese and white working class communities live in concentrated mono-cultural groups.”

However, it has been suggested that the Government’s new academy concept could help to bridge these divides – both Wellington College and the City of London School are among those thirty or so independent schools who support an academy. Many other leaders of independent schools have also cited the fact that their institutions take numerous students from less advantaged backgrounds and offer them bursaries, and that they are involved in projects which partner independent and state schools.

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