State schools' strong performance 'putting private sector at risk'
State schools are making ground on their private counterparts in terms of performance, potentially putting the future of private establishments at risk, according to the editor of the Good Schools Guide.
The guide's editor said state schools have improved so much in recent years, with more high performers in the sector now than ever before, that parents who would have previously opted for private schools may choose to have their children educated in the public sector.
Editor Lord Lucas said that when the Good Schools Guide was first published back in 1986, only ten state schools made the prestigious list of recommendations, amounting to four per cent of the overall number of schools that it listed.
However, over time this has grown, particularly in the last few years, and we now see a reality where the guide contains the names of 300 state schools nationwide, making up an impressive 25 per cent of the overall volume of schools recommended in its pages.
This is a result of better performance in state schools overall, with GCSE results having improved nationwide for a number of years, and more children from the state sector now reportedly managing to find their way towards admissions at the best universities in the country.
"I would guess that over time we would see fewer independent schools. If more parents are choosing state, then there's a smaller market for independent schools," Lord Lucas told BBC Radio Four's Today programme.
"If they are going to continue to expand as they have been doing, they are going to have to find new sources of parents or new ways of attracting parents.
"This is a challenge to the private sector. There are a lot of extremely good schools that are well managed, that are responding by making themselves even better," he added.
A Department for Education spokesman said that with 1.4 million pupils now being educated in schools in the state sector being listed as either good or outstanding by Ofsted, it shows just how well public sector schools have improved in the last few years.
