Skills for Higher Education: Should Private Schools Be Abolished?

This essay delves into the complex debate surrounding the potential abolishment of private schools in the UK. It examines the arguments for and against, considering factors such as educational privilege, resource distribution, and societal inequality. The essay acknowledges the enhanced educational opportunities and extracurricular activities often found in private schools, along with their smaller class sizes and strong parent-teacher communication. However, it also addresses concerns about the financial barriers that prevent lower and middle-class families from accessing these advantages, leading to a divided society. While acknowledging the potential disruption to employment and the value of hard work, the essay ultimately concludes that abolishing private schools is not the optimal solution. Instead, it suggests government policies to reduce private school fees for deserving students or to mandate reserved seats for lower-income families, aiming to bridge the gap and promote educational equality. Desklib offers a variety of resources for students, including essays and solved assignments.

Skills for Higher
Education

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION......................................................................................................................3
MAIN BODY.............................................................................................................................3
CONCLUSION..........................................................................................................................5
REFERENCES...........................................................................................................................6
Books and Journals:...............................................................................................................6
Online References..................................................................................................................6

INTRODUCTION
Schools are very necessary for the development of the students as well as the country.
School provides knowledge to the students in various fields which helps them to get a better
position (Elacqua, Iribarren and Santos, 2018). Nowadays schools are not just about learning
history lectures or learning sonnets, these are the first stepping stone in the life of student.
Schools help students to develop hobbies, providing basic etiquettes, developing social skills.
But nowadays private schools have captured all the market in schools, which is not good, in
this essay there is a discussion about ‘should private schools be abolished or not’. This will
give the whole view if private schools should be abolished or not.
MAIN BODY
Schools are the first stepping stone in the life of the child, in which they learn about
themselves and will learn about interacting with each other. Private schools are also very
important for the betterment of the life of the child and the betterment of the country, private
schools are known to be an educational privilege (Hunter, 2020). Private schools are
successful because they are providing enhanced education to the students, there are many
extra-curricular activities for the students which help them in their development process. The
class size of the private schools is relatively smaller than the state-governed schools which
are good because when the class size is small the teacher will give more time to the
individual student, and if the class size is larger the one-to-one time will be comparatively
low. This has been seen that the students of the private schools have high standards of
discipline and more respect towards the staff. Private schools remain in touch with the pupil’s
parents, this communication ensures that the needs of the student are monitored and teachers
help them to achieve those needs. Almost all private schools have many facilities which help
students in their education throughout the school, there are many facilities like a well-settled
library, well-equipped classrooms, sports facilities, etc. This will make the student in
identifying and growing their interest, hobbies, weakness, and strengths (Why private schools
should be abolished, 2022). Many private schools arrange several camps or events for the
students like music events, sports events, etc. co-curricular activities are very important in the
life of the student.
Besides these advantages, many people think that private schools should be abolished
because there are many reasons for that. The fees of the private schools are very higher than
those the lower class and middle-class people cannot afford, this makes inequality among the

students, the rich people are sending their children to the private schools and they are getting
a good quality education while the poor and middle-class peoples are not able to send their
children to private schools because of the higher fees. This is not just stated private schools
divide, this is about two divisions of people (Dovemark and et.al., 2018). Those who can
afford the fees of the private schools and can send their children to the private schools and
those who are not able to pay the fees of the private schools and are not able to send their
children to the private schools. The abolition is not just about bringing down everyone to the
lower level, rather it will help in the redistribution of resources Britain already have but are
utilized mostly by the wealthy persons. Private schools divide society into two divisions.
There is a basic duty of the people that if there is a system that creates inequality in society,
the question should be asked is there any point in doing something about that (Debate:
Private schools should be abolished, 201). Many people want to become doctors, engineers,
or lawyers but they were never given the proper education which would make them fulfil
their dreams, because of the high fees in private schools, most of those people are now stuck
in a low paying job and they continue the cycle of the poverty and are not amounting
anything in the growth of the economy.
Private school students backed themselves by arguing that it is better than some
people to have good quality education rather than nobody this is the main reason that the
abolition has been met with controversy (Pang and et.al., 2020). The abolition would just
make the private schools subsidized by the state, this would just amount to a waste of
government funds on the well-established schools and well-off students. Some people are not
accepting the abolition of private schools, they ask ‘what about those people who work hard
to send their children to the private schools’ the abolition will create inequality between the
people who work hard for becoming rich and the people who do not work hard and are
continuing the cycle of poverty.
The conclusion which comes out is abolishing private schools is not the solution,
because there are many ways in which private schools contribute to the growth of the
economy, and private schools also provide a quality education that cannot be provided by
state-governed schools. Private schools provide a large amount of employment to many
people the abolition will result in loss of employment for those who work in private schools.
The government should make policies by which the fees of the private schools become lower
for the students who are getting good marks and wants to achieve something big in the future
(Connell and et.al., 2020). This will bring equality between the people who can afford private

schools and students who cannot afford private schools but are eligible for good quality
education or the government should make it compulsory for the private schools to reserve
some seats for the lower class or low-earning people.
CONCLUSION
In this essay, there was a debate that ‘should private schools be abolished in the UK.
The conclusion which came out of this essay is that private schools should not be abolished in
the UK because there are many reasons like a large amount of employment, better education,
and many more. The government should make policies taking into consideration the students
who are eligible for good quality education, the government should make it compulsory for
private schools to reserve some seats for the lower-earning class.

REFERENCES
Books and Journals:
Connell, R.W., and et.al., 2020. Making the difference: Schools, families and social division.
Routledge.
Dovemark, M., and et.al., 2018. Deregulation, privatisation and marketisation of Nordic
comprehensive education: Social changes reflected in schooling. Education
Inquiry, 9(1), pp.122-141.
Elacqua, G., Iribarren, M.L. and Santos, H., 2018. Private schooling in Latin America.
Hunter, D.J., 2020. Covid-19 and the stiff upper lip—the pandemic response in the United
Kingdom. New England Journal of Medicine, 382(16), p.e31.
Pang, K.H., and et.al., 2020. The impact of COVID-19 on European health care and urology
trainees. European Urology, 78(1), p.6.
Online References
Why private schools should be abolished, 2022. [Online] Available through:
<https://www.varsity.co.uk/opinion/23670>
Debate: Private schools should be abolished, 2019. [Online] Available through:
<https://www.oxfordstudent.com/2019/10/15/private-schools-should-be-abolished/>