Loosening the grip of the privately educated

https://www.theguardian.com/education/2019/jun/28/loosening-the-grip-of-the-privately-educated

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The Sutton Trust has once more incisively reminded us that we are ruled by a privileged, privately educated Oxbridge elite (Privately educated retain grip on elite jobs, 25 June). This iteration is all the more painful because of the seemingly imminent installation of Boris Johnson in Downing Street.

There are three radical solutions: first, change the law to remove the tax subsidies that private schools benefit from every year; second, follow Finland’s lead and make it illegal to charge for school education; third, for every privately educated person a university admits in excess of, say, 10% of the student body, the government should fine it a sum equivalent to three times the annual undergraduate fee. The Sutton Trust could then happily shut up shop on this issue for good.Prof Rebecca BodenTampere University, Finland

• Throughout the country, we see that those at the top are still drawn from a narrow background. When employees come from a small talent pool, employers struggle with a lack of diversity and less innovation. That’s why, in partnership with the Social Mobility Commission and the Social Mobility Foundation, we launched the world’s first social mobility employer index. It ranks the top UK employers who have taken the most action to improve social mobility in the workplace, incentivising firms to improve access to top-quality jobs for candidates from all backgrounds. We have a rich talent pool with huge potential in this country, and firms are increasingly realising that diversity is good for business. If the UK is to remain globally competitive, businesses across the UK need to make sure everyone can access the opportunities they can offer.Catherine McGuinnessPolicy chair at the City of London Corporation

• In complaining about “the stranglehold of the middle and upper classes on the top universities and jobs” your leader writer is arguing with science, just as climate change deniers do (Editorial, 26 June).

IQ’s correlation with educational and job success and its strong heritability component in the developed world are two of psychology’s most robust and replicable findings. Taken together with selection on merit, they make the over-representation of middle and upper classes in top universities and elite jobs inevitable. The mathematics of the normal curve imply that the more exclusive the educational/job placements, the greater the over-representation will be.

This does not mean that we should not distribute incomes more fairly, put more resources into compensatory education or contextualise in selection processes. Some acceptance of the scientific realities is called for, however, in discussion of this political issue.Brian McDevittKnutsford, Cheshire

• What should be worrying politicians, and everyone concerned about our decreasing social mobility, is not that there exists a “‘pipeline’ from fee-paying schools through Oxbridge and into top jobs”, but that the pipeline is being enlarged. With the increased use in independent schools of the lightly regulated Cambridge Pre-U instead of the more rigorous A-levels, privately educated pupils have increased their chances of being accepted into our “top” universities.

A freedom of information request recently revealed that in Oxford and Cambridge universities, in the academic year 2017-18, there were 125 undergraduates with three or more Pre-U qualifications but no A-levels, and 1,075 students with a combination of three or more A-level and Pre-U qualifications.

What chance do our brightest pupils from underprivileged backgrounds and underfunded schools have when trying to compete with pupils using a different and perhaps more generous route into university?Bernie EvansLiverpool

• Since the main route to the top is via patronage rather than qualification, the only effective remedy is to open appointment processes to public scrutiny.

The commissioner for public appointments should be newly empowered, financed and staffed to hold independent, pre-appointment hearings – in public and open to the media – for all senior public appointments. Only then will we have confidence that they are made on merit alone.John HambleySnape, Suffolk

• As it is impossible to prevent families with high-level access to the elite controlling network (ECN) using it to maximise an offspring’s life chances, the perpetuation of a patrician class by nomination rather than ability will continue. However, we must seek ways to impede this understandable but immoral activity. As a first step, why not make all UK secondary schools (private and public) 11-16 only and deliver A-levels and university applications solely through local sixth form colleges? In this way, from the age of 16, the Johnsons and Hunts would mix with, and might better respect, the plebs for whom they currently show such disdain. Improving the quality of the ECN and making it a non-hereditary dynamic entity is essential if the UK is to prosper.David HelliwellHolmfirth, West Yorkshire

• There is a fundamental ethical question at stake in the debate about independent education and the privilege it embodies: are some people of inherently more value than others? My position is unequivocal: quality education and healthcare are intrinsic to everyone’s flourishing. No one should be able to buy private education and healthcare and the advantages that accrue from them if that privileged position disadvantages others.Prof Colin RichardsSpark Bridge, Cumbria

• Aside from the underdog having been educated at Charterhouse and the frontrunner at Eton, is there any other evidence that privately educated people are more likely to hold elite jobs?Les BrightExeter, Devon

• Rhiannon Lucy Cosslett is spot on (Let’s end this deference to privately educated elites, Journal, 26 June). I agree “that a private school education doesn’t always make a better candidate”. Its aim is to make those who have had one believe they are better than those who haven’t.David ShannonWoore, Shropshire

• I learned today that Jeremy Hunt (Charterhouse and Oxford) was the son of a senior naval officer. I hope his parents paid his school fees rather than me.David RuddlesdenBurton upon Trent, Staffordshire

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