Public schools are a blight on British society

03 Feb 2010

Watch the debate in full above, or use the Chapter listing on the right-hand side of this page to skip to an individual speaker.

Alternatively, listen to the debate on the Intelligence Squared iTunes podcast.

Arguing in favour of the motion are Francis Wheen, Martin Rowson, and David Aaronovitch.

Francis Wheen looks back unhappily at the philistinism, racism, anti-Semitism, bullying and smugness which marred his years at Harrow. He states that public schools are nurseries of vice and immorality, which only call themselves independent out of shame.

Martin Rowson says he is sick of society’s obsession with education, and of the ethos that values knowing the capital of Mozambique and the valency of tin. He says public schools breed a complacent sense of entitlement, and that their pupils go on to swamp the media, law and banking.

David Aaronovitch says that the function of fee-paying schools is to prevent downwards social mobility. Everything public schools do, he claims, is to purchase competitive advantage. Their fees rose 43% between 2003 and 2008, simply so that they could out-compete state sector schools.

Arguing against the motion are Barnaby Lenon, Mary Beard, and Felipe Fernandez-Armesto.

Barnaby Lenon, the headmaster of Harrow, says that British public schools are one of the aspects of British society which foreigners like the most. Their pupils are not socially homogenous – about a third receive support with their fees.

Society, Mary Beard says, needs intellectual goods so that it can communicate with those from outside our shores. And with fewer than 500 state schools offering classics, and with a huge drop in the number learning modern languages, she is reluctantly siding in favour of private education.

After criticising his opponents as soi-disant radicals and media grandees, Felipe Fernandez-Armesto says that they have mistaken the causes of inequality. He says that it is the corporate fat cats and kiss-and-tell millionairesses who are really the real blight on British society.

Final vote: 543 For, 763 Against, 69 Don't know

The motion is defeated by 220 votes.