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Middle class abandoning state schools, union warns

Richard Garner
Saturday 08 June 2002 00:00 BST
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The fight to win over the hearts and minds of middle-class parents to support state schools "hangs in the balance'', the leader of Britain's biggest headteachers' union declared yesterday.

David Hart, general secretary of the National Association of Head Teachers, told his annual conference in Torquay: "They are still moving their children into the private sector, spurred on by smaller class sizes.

"Would you like a pupil-teacher ratio of 11-1 in your primary school? Or 10-1 in your secondary school? You bet you would, because that is what private-school parents are paying for at the present time."

Mr Hart's warning comes a month after independent schools revealed that the total number of pupils in their sector had topped 500,000 this year for the first time.

Figures showed pupil numbers were at a record high of 500,966 – 8,463 up on the previous year, a rise of 1.7 per cent. A breakdown of the figures showed the increases were spread across all age ranges.

Speaking after his conference speech, Mr Hart said the reasons for the flight of middle-class parents were complex. The most extreme examples were in inner-city areas – particularly London where in some boroughs as many as one in three parents sent their children to independent schools.

"I am absolutely certain it is because of a lethal combination of factors," he said.

"It is teacher shortages. Having your child taught by a succession of supply teachers or unqualified teachers and also not being willing to tolerate bad behaviour by fellow pupils impacting on the class as a whole are key reasons. Parents will vote with their feet if they can afford to. There is a real danger of that."

Mr Hart's warning was issued only one day after David Miliband, the new minister for School Standards, made an unequivocal pledge to secure more resources for state schooling from Gordon Brown, the Chancellor, in the comprehensive spending review to be announced next month.

Mr Miliband added: "I am proud to be part of a Government that now challenges the country to support a tax rise for investment in public services.

"Britain has been waiting all my adult life for a government able to say that it can run the economy well, can be rigorous about public-spending priorities, can be a competent manager of public services and then have the courage to go and ask the public to back reforms with investment."

Mr Hart said: "What both David Miliband and I want to see is that the state sector – which is infinitely capable of providing for the most able children in this country – is given the resources and the opportunity to do so.

"We want the movement to be all the other way – from the private to the state sector – but we won't get it the right way round until we solve the issue of the recruitment and retention of teaching staff."

He said that to succeed in reversing the tide there had to be "a continuing and accelerated programme of funding that creates a level playing field for the state sector".

He added: "Government demands [to improve performance] have to be matched by government support."

He told headteachers: "This is a defining moment. Your many aspirations turn on the events of the next few months.

"You have not travelled this far to see promises, made in the heat of an election campaign, dashed by the results of the spending review. You are expecting the Government to deliver and deliver they must."

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