Call for state to pay for private school places

Campaigners are calling for the Government to pay for academically able pupils from all backgrounds to take up places across 100 top private schools as part of its plan to promote social mobility.

The Sutton Trust has published a 10 point mobility manifesto today aimed at closing the gap in results being achieved by children from poorer backgrounds and their peers.

The plan includes state funding to open up places to 100 leading independent schools “on the basis of ability rather than the ability to pay”.

The manifesto says that pupils who had gone through the assisted places scheme were continuing to reap the benefits.

The scheme, which was scrapped in 1997, helped pay for places at private schools for disadvantaged pupils. The Sutton Trust’s manifesto says that research had shown that virtually all students who had been on the programme “have gained promotion in well-paid professional and managerial occupations and 40 per cent were earning more than £90,000”. It calls for an open access scheme in which poor pupils get independent school places free of charge and middle earners pay reduced fees.

Read the full article in the Yorkshire Post.