Britain's private, fee-paying schools are institutions where children
from affluent families have their privileges further entrenched through
a high-quality, richly resourced education. There is an irrefutable link
between private schools and life's gilded path: private school to top
university to top career. Engines of Privilege contends that, in a
society that mouths the virtues of equality of opportunity, of fairness
and of social cohesion, the educational apartheid separating private
schools from our state schools deploys our national educational
resources unfairly and inefficiently; blocks social mobility; reproduces
privilege down the generations; and underpins a damaging democratic
deficit in our society.
Intrinsic to any vision of the future of Britain has to be the nature of
our educational system. Yet the quality of conversation on the issue of
private education remains surprisingly sterile, patchy and highly
subjective.
Francis Green and David Kynaston carefully examine options for change
while drawing on the valuable lessons of history. Accessible,
evidence-based and inclusive, Engines of Privilege aims to kick-start
a long overdue national debate. Clear, vigorous prose is combined with
forensic analysis to powerful effect, illuminating the painful contrast
between the importance of private schools in British society and the
near-absence of serious, policy-shaping debate.
