Important trails overshadowed by political bogeyman

EARLIER this month, in a wide-ranging speech, Oxford graduate Jacqui Smith, Labour's Skills Minister, attacked her old university for admitting more students from independent schools than she thought appropriate.

- Neil Walker

Choosing to focus firstly on a political point, using inaccurate and misleading statistics, before mentioning the two key announcements she was there to make, telegraphs an unfortunate mindset from the government of division and prejudice-building rather than breaking down barriers; ironically one of the key points she intended to make. One would think that a replay of the Trump/Harvard spat was something that an avowedly progressive government would wish to avoid.

According to the Minister, “the independent sector educates around 6% of school children in the UK who makeup 33.8% of Oxford entrants.” The government are clearly celebrating the fact that they have already moved 1% of the UK school population out of independent schools and into the state sector just six months after the introduction of VAT on school fees.

This has been reflected in the number of school closures announced in the last few months.

The 6% figure is, however, inaccurate as that is the total number of school aged children at independent schools; if we consider only 18 year-olds, the figure is closer to 12% of school leavers.