1. The authors of the studies discussed above believe that devoting so much privilege to 7% of school students leads to a waste of potential talent. What do you think? The UK’s private, fee-paying, independent or ‘public’ schools, as they are sometimes called, have existed for centuries and have survived and prospered despite occasional political attempts to abolish or reform them. Verkaik’s Posh Boys (2018) and Green and Kynaston’s Engines of Privilege (2019) turned critical attention once more to the private sector of education as each study considered it to be a ‘problem’ for British society.

About 7% of the UK’s school population attend these schools. In 2018–19, the fees for boarding schools were £40,668 for Eton and £40,050 for Harrow. The average day fees for prep schools (primary level) were £13,026, and considerably more for secondary schools and sixth forms, making them available only to wealthy families. One reason why parents are prepared to spend so much money is to increase the chances of their sons and daughters gaining entry to Oxford