High fees bring end to private schools boom

Fewer families are choosing private schools for the first time in a decade, figures show today.

Years of inflation-busting fee increases - this year's average rise was 5.8 per cent - may be starting to take their toll on parental enthusiasm.

The long boom in private education has seen the number of schools charging annual fees of more than £20,000 rise to 88 from none four years ago. Even London-where demand has traditionally been strongest, has seen a drop in the number of privately educated pupils.

But private schools blamed the fall in numbers on a combination of other factors, including the Government's decision to double visa charges for non-EU pupils. Foreign arrivals slumped by eight per cent this year, they said. The Independent Schools Council (ISC) said the 0.6 per cent drop in pupil numbers at 1,261 schools to 501,580 also reflected a decline in the number of school-age children in Britain.

More pupils were lost from the phasing-out of the Assisted Places Scheme, one of Tony Blair's first acts when he won power in 1997. Against that background, the ISC said, private schools have done well to keep their "market share" as the pupil population as a whole has decreased by 1.2 per cent in the past year.

However, many parents are so anxious to avoid London's many poorly performing comprehensives that private schools are heavily over-subscribed. Proportionately, one in eight London children continue to be educated privately, compared with one in 14 in Britain as a whole. However, numbers of day pupils fell by 0.5 per cent in the capital, and boarders by 0.8 per cent, while average fees in London increased by 6.1 per cent to £9,669 a year.

All but a handful of the schools that charge £20,000 a year do so for boarders. The popularity of boarding has grown in recent years - mainly because some parents believe boarding schools provide an environment where children can concentrate on their education. But again, about 1,000 fewer children started boarding school this year compared with last year.

The ISC insisted that parents get a great deal for their money in terms of discipline, facilities, generous staffing and - crucially - exam results.

The 2005 ISC "census" showed private schools now have one teacher for just under 10 pupils. The pupil-teacher ratio in state schools is 17.3 pupils.

The ISC said investment in facilities such as sports halls, laboratories, art studios, books and computers is running at record levels. And this year, the number of privately educated pupils who went on to university reached a new high of 92.2 per cent.

Private schools now supply half of those who go on to do engineering courses at university. And they warn that many more university science departments would have to close for lack of students if it was not for the steady supply of chemists, physicists and biologists coming from the independent sector. ISC leader Jonathan Shepherd criticised the Government after it doubled the visa charge for non-EU students to £500, and raised it to £250 for postal applications. This was an "annoying fleabite" for schools but potentially a "bigger problem" for the British economy as a whole. Many non-EU students at British schools stayed on to go to UK universities, contributing millions to local economies.