The UK middle-class are fleeing public schools in favor of private schools following months of school lockdowns in the country.
Middle-class families across the UK are applying for private schools in record numbers, as they look to move their children from public schools due to the digital divide that has been highlighted during the lockdown. For months now, UK schools have been on lockdown, learning through online resources and classes.
Middle-class anxiety
Access to these services, however, has been unequal for public and private schools. Middle-class families have also become increasingly anxious about their children falling behind the learning curve in comparison with their counterparts in private schools.
Data available from research done by Teacher Tapp also seems to confirm their worst fear, showing that only 3 percent of state-funded primary schools had access to live lessons with their teachers. The data went further to show that in state-funded secondary schools, the figure was 6 percent. In private schools, this figure jumped to 59 percent for primary schools and 72 percent for secondary schools.
Diane Reay, emeritus professor of education at Cambridge University analyzing the situation said that many middle-class parents with students in state schools have become aware of the disparity between the state and private schools in the last few months the schools have been in lockdown. The allocation of funds, which disproportionately goes to private students to resources available to them has further highlighted inequalities in the two education systems.
Inequalities between private and public schools
This is leading to middle-class flight from the public to private schools, something Reay said will also devastate the public education sector. Reay continued by saying that disparity between public and private schools will continue to become pronounced as the post coronavirus crisis continues.
Andrew McCleave, headteacher of Ballard School agreed with Reay that these inequalities were being cemented and migration to private schools by middle-class will compound the situation. He also agreed that students who are currently in private schools are now way ahead of their counterparts in public schools, having had months of online classes and live lessons.
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