Blog 13
Schools win right to turn away middle class children
Schools win right to turn away middle class children
By Graeme Paton, Education Editor 27 May 2011, The Telegraph
Summary
Debatable alterations in the rules schools use to allocate places might be disastrous for middle class children. The rules have been introduced to try to close the disparity between rich and poor. One of the rules is meant to get more children from very low-income families into the better schools. Allowing the schools to select pupils based on the family income will do this. Schools can do this in favour of children who are entitled to free school lunches. Unfortunately this new allocation regime is arguable, because it has a negative side effect for middle class children. For those children there might not be a place anymore on those schools, because they don’t bring enough money in for the benefit of the poorer children.
Opinion
The government has the aspiration to be fair on all children and to give them equal rights. Accessibility to good education is probably one of the most important starting points to get more equal changes for everyone in society. Although this rule seems to give the less advantaged children an opportunity to get better education, it won’t work if other children, the middle class in this case, are duped. I think the intention is good, but Britain really needs a completely different system if they want equal access to good schools for everyone and not just a few new rules.
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