The UK Labor government has pledged to tax private schools to boost public education and create thousands of teaching jobs, but the policy is worrying families already under pressure to pay fees.
Prime Minister Keir Starmer, who took office after the July 4 general election, has repeatedly said he has “nothing against private schools”, which educate about 600,000 children, or 6.5 per cent of its pupils. country.
But “every parent has aspirations for their children whether they go to a private school or not,” added Starmer, whose two children went to a state school in their north London neighborhood.
“For those kids in public high school who don’t have the teachers they need, that’s a lifelong problem,” he said.
After years of tight public spending and worsening inequalities, the government confirmed in July that it would remove the exemption from value added tax on fees paid to private schools.
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It hopes the move will raise £1.6 billion ($2.1 billion), which will be used to fund 6,500 new teachers in the public sector.
Private schools will have to pay 20% VAT on the fees they collect from January 1, heralding huge increases in bills for parents.
Private school fees already average £18,000 a year, according to the Independent Schools Council (ISC), which represents private schools.
‘Worry’
The move has sparked strong emotions in the UK, which boasts a number of world-renowned, ultra-exclusive schools that have educated many members of the ruling class.
But accounts of panic from parents of more humble means have filled the papers in recent months.
Some say they will have to postpone retirement, change jobs, forgo vacations or call on their parents for help to cover the bills.
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Others consider moving to be closer to a good state school.
Amaka Nwabueze is considering working a second job.
“My life is already busy, so I might have to take a second job for the weekends, which means I would barely see my children,” the 45-year-old financial analyst, who is a single mother of three, told AFP her. .
Her two older children had already transferred to selective state schools, which conduct entrance exams, when they passed secondary school, but the youngest failed.
He was offered another school, which his mother called “the worst” in her London neighborhood.
“I can’t take my child from a private primary school to a failing secondary school,” he added, saying he expected a £4,000 rise in annual fees.
“It gives me high blood pressure,” he said.
“There is real anxiety,” added Tony Oulton, headmaster of Hulme School in Oldham, north-west England, which has 730 pupils aged two to 18.
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He criticized the policy, which he believes is wrongly based on “assumptions that they (private school parents) are all rich and can afford the cost of VAT”.
The parents at his school are “mostly working class, lower middle class, ambitious, hardworking,” with “many of them working two jobs to pay the tuition,” he explained.
Widening inequality
Opponents of the reform argue that public school enrollment will explode if the private sector is lost, raising costs for the government.
But studies contradict this.
The Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) has estimated that the number of children in state schools will actually fall by 2030 due to projected population decline.
Several think tanks also point out that the gap between private and state schools widened sharply under 14 years of Conservative rule.
“Fees have risen significantly in private schools, while state spending has been cut until last year,” explains Harry Quilter-Piner, interim director at the charity Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR).
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“State schools over the last 10-15 years have had to be innovative about how they spend their money. And I think the Labor government is asking private schools to do the same,” he added.
Source: AFP