Published in The Scotsman, Thursday, 21st October, 2010

The independent schools’ sector has seen a 2.5% decrease in pupil numbers in the Primary years and a 0.9% increase in the Secondary years over the last twelve months. The oft-quoted reason for this is that external economic influences are curtailing the parents’ ability or desire to fund an independent education in their child’s early years. Personally, I do not believe that this argument really stands up to any serious scrutiny. If money was the main determining factor, then we would see pupil numbers drop across the age groups and that is clearly not happening. Indeed, the total number of pupils receiving an independent education has been stable in Scotland for almost thirty years, regardless of the wider economic backdrop. My own school has seen a 13% increase in pupil numbers over the last year and so we need to dig deeper to establish a more robust reason. For me, there is one very good determining factor in the drop in Primary numbers and it is not simply to do with money. It is the fact that there are a high number of quality primary schools in the maintained sector doing an excellent job in difficult times. As a result, the ‘need’ for an independent education can be dissipated by good quality provision in state schools. However, Secondary schools in the maintained sector have a tougher job, having to operate a full inclusion policy, having to serve disparate and wide-ranging catchment areas and having to introduce a new curriculum without knowing what the future examination system will look like. As a result, parents of children, particularly those in Primary 7, will desperately seek an independent education for their child at Secondary level, particularly when moving from an excellent, local primary, so as to avoid a massive regional secondary which is often seen as remote from the small local communities which they serve. With savage cuts to services on their way, it will be the independent sector that picks up the pieces as parents decide that reduced provision is not what they want for the education of their child. With independent schools now offering financial assistance, parents with low or moderate incomes will have a choice to make and my money will be on the Scotsman reporting in a year’s time on an increase in independent schools’ numbers across the board.

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