Private school

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For the film of this title, see Private School (film).

Private schools, or independent schools, are schools not administered by local, state, or national government, which retain the right to select their student body and are funded in whole or in part by charging their students tuition rather than with public (state) funds. In the United Kingdom and some other Commonwealth countries the use of the term is generally restricted to primary and secondary educational levels: it is almost never used of universities or other tertiary institutions.


Private education in North America covers the whole gamut of educational activity. Private schools range from pre-school to tertiary level institutions. Annual tuitions at K-12 schools range from nothing at tuition-free schools to more than $40,000 at several boarding schools.

The secondary level includes schools offering grades 7 through 12 and grade 13. This category includes preparatory schools or "prep schools", boarding schools and day schools. Tuition at private secondary schools varies from school to school and depends on many factors, including the location of the school, the willingness of parents to pay, peer tuitions, and the endowment. High tuition, schools claim, is used to pay higher salaries for the best teachers, and also used to provide enriched learning environments including a low student to teacher ratio, small class sizes and services such as libraries, science laboratories, and computers. Some private schools are boarding schools. Some military schools are privately owned or operated as well.

Religiously affiliated or denominational schools form a distinct category of private schools. Some such schools teach religious lessons together with the usual academic subjects to instill their particular faith's beliefs and traditions in the students who attend. For example, The Epstein School in Atlanta, Georgia teaches conservative Judaism to its students. Others use the denomination as more of a general label to describe on what the founders based their belief, while still maintaining a fine distinction between academics and religion. They include parochial schools, a term which is often used to denote Catholic Christian schools. Other religious groups represented in the K-12 private education sector include Protestants, Jews, Muslims, and the Orthodox Christians.

Many educational alternatives, such as independent schools, are also privately financed. Private schools often avoid some state regulations.

Special assistance schools aim to improve the lives of their students by providing services tailored to very specific needs of individual students. Such schools include tutoring schools and schools to assist the learning of handicapped children.

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[edit] England and Wales

Generally preferring to be called independent schools because of their freedom to operate outside of government regulation, private schools are favoured by a minority of parents because of their reputation for high academic standards, which are often perceived to be higher than those found in the state sector, a more acceptable social milieu and wider opportunities in fields such as sport, drama and music. Many Independent schools are single-sex (though this is becoming less common).

Independent primary schools are called preparatory schools, preparing pupils not for admission to a university as in the United States, but to an independent secondary school, which admit pupils taking into account their academic achievement as measured by the Common Entrance Exam. Such independent secondary schools are often called public schools, though this term is primarily used of the older and more prestigious schools, like Rugby School, Winchester, Eton, Roedean School and Harrow. Many of these schools are boarding schools. The reason that private schools are called public schools in England is historical. These older schools were formed when there was little or no school system; they were called public schools then, because at that time schooling was really only available for the elite by private tutoring. By comparison, these early schools were considered public, open to all who could pay the fees as opposed to private tuition. The name has stuck since, but only in England. See also Independent school (United Kingdom)#Terminology for further elaboration on this topic. The name is almost a contradiction as they are private profit-making organisations, not public, government-funded organisations. They are also considered to be charities which is surprising to many.

Due to their ancient foundation, many private schools have a religious character, although this does not generally aim at pupils' religious indoctrination and does not preclude pupils of other faiths attending if they wish. Religion is not as important an aspect in the majority of parents' decision to send their child to an independent school as it is in the United States, due to the requirement of state schools to timetable periods of Christian worship.

In the 1970s the two-tier system was removed from state-run Secondary education in most of England and Wales, in which all students were required to sit the 11+ exam at that age. The more able students would then be offered a place at a local grammar school, as opposed to a secondary modern school. These were replaced by all ability comprehensive schools. However after comprehensivisation, some grammar schools were able to become independent (often the ones with an established heritage).

Although many of independent schools in England and Wales aim at the highest academic standards, a small number have been established to provide support for those experiencing difficulties in mainstream education.

[edit] India

In much of India, the schooling offered by the state governments would technically come under the category of Public schools. They are Federal or State funded and have zero or very minimal fees.

The other category of schools are those run and partly funded by private individuals, private organizations and religious groups, especially by the Christian missionaries. They are usually not completely privately run, being 'aided' by the government. The standard and the quality of education is quite high.Technically these would be categorized as private schools, but many of them have the name Public School appended to them, e.g., the Delhi Public School . Most of the middle class families send their children to such schools, which might be in their own city or far off (like Boarding schools). The medium of education is English, but as a compulsory subject, Hindi and/or the state's official language is also taught. Some college and school data are available in StudentIndia.com also Boarding school

Preschool education is mostly limited to organized neighbourhood nursery schools. Recently some chains like Shemrock have opened branches nationwide.

These situations are more or less the same in the other countries of the Indian subcontinent (South Asia) like Nepal, Pakistan, etc.

[edit] Australia

See also: Education in Australia

Private schools are one of two types of school in Australia, the other being government schools (state schools). Whilst private schools are sometimes considered 'public' schools (as in the Associated Public Schools of Victoria), the term 'public school' is usually synonymous with a government school.

Private schools in Australia may be favoured for many reasons: prestige, and the social status of the 'old school tie'; better quality physical infrastructure and more facilities (eg. playing fields, swimming pool, etc.), higher-paid teachers; and/or the belief that private schools offer a higher quality of education. Some schools offer the removal of the purported distractions of co-education; the presence of boarding facilities; or stricter discipline. Public schools are more affordable and have less strict clothing codes.

Private schools in Australia are still government funded, although they are also more expensive than government schools.

Private schools may have a greater focus on sports and other associations than public schools. The GPS schools in New South Wales and Queensland were established to promote certain sports perceived to be elite within these schools.

Unlike most public schools, most Australian private school students are subject to strict dress codes - for example, a blazer for boys.

There are two main categories of private schools in Australia: Catholic schools and Independent schools.[1]

Catholic Schools

Catholic schools form the second largest sector after government schools, with around 21% of secondary enrolments. Most Australian catholic schools belong to a system like government schools, are typically co-educational, and attempt to provide Catholic education evenly across the states. These schools are also known as 'systemic'. Systemic Catholic schools are funded mainly by state and federal government and have low fees.

There are also a substantial number of independent Catholic schools, often single-sex, usually run by established religious orders, such as the Sisters of Mercy or the Christian Brothers. Independent Catholic school fees vary, ranging from low to high. However, fee's are typically lower than that of Independent schools, and fee concessions for Catholic families facing financial difficulty are quite common.

Catholic schools, both systemic and independent, proclaim strong religious motivations and most often the majority of their staff and students will be Catholics.[1]

Independent Schools

Independent schools make up the last sector and are the most popular form of schooling for boarding students. Independent schools are non-government institutions that are generally not part of a system.

Although most are non-aligned, some of the best known independent schools also belong to the large, long-established religious foundations (Anglican, Uniting Church, Presbyterian) but in most cases they do not insist on their students’ religious allegiance. These schools are typically viewed as 'elite schools'. Many of the ‘grammar schools’ also fall in this category. They are usually expensive schools that tend to be up-market and traditional in style.

On the other hand, many independent schools are quite new, often small, and not necessarily traditional at all.[1]

[edit] Germany

In Germany, Article 7 Paragraph 4 of the Grundgesetz (the constitution of Germany) is guaranteeing the right to establish private schools. This article belongs to the first part of the German basic law, which defines the civil and human rights. A right, which is guaranteed in this part of the Grundgesetz, can only be suspended in state of emergency if the respective article literally states this possibility. That is not the case with this article. It is also not possible to abolish these rights. This unusual protection of private schools was implemented to protect these schools from a second Gleichschaltung or similar events in the future.

There are two types of private schools in Germany, Ersatzschulen (literally: substitute schools) and Ergänzungsschulen (literally: auxiliary schools). There are also private Hochschulen (private colleges and universities) in Germany, but similar to the UK, the term private school is almost never used of universities or other tertiary institutions.

Ersatzschulen are ordinary primary or secondary schools, which are run by private individuals, private organizations or religious groups. These schools offering the same types of diplomas like public schools. Ersatzschulen lack the freedom to operate completely outside of government regulation. Teachers at Ersatzschulen must have at least the same education and at least the same wages like teachers at public schools, an Ersatzschule must have at least the same academic standards like a public school and Article 7 Paragraph 4 of the Grundgesetz also forbids segregation of pupils according to the means of their parents (the so called Sondierungsverbot). Therefore most Ersatzschulen have very low tuition fees, compared to most other western european countries. However, it is not possible to finance these schools with such low tuition fees, that's why all German Ersatzschulen are additionally financed with public funds.

Ergänzungsschulen are secondary or post-secondary (non-tertiary) schools, which are run by private individuals, private organizations or rarely religious groups, and offering a type of education which is not available at public schools. Most of these schools are vocational schools. However, these vocational schools are no part of the German dual education system. Ergänzungsschulen have the freedom to operate outside of government regulation and are funded in whole by charging their students tuition fees.

See also: Education in Germany

[edit] South Africa

Some of the oldest schools in South Africa are private church schools that were established by missionaries in the early nineteenth century. The private sector has grown ever since. After the abolition of apartheid, the laws governing private education in South Africa changed significantly. The South African Schools Act of 1996 recognises two categories of schools: "public" (state-controlled) and "independent" (which includes traditional private schools and schools which are privately-governed.)

Schools previously called semi-private or model C schools are not private schools, as they are ultimately state-controlled.

See also: Education in South Africa

[edit] United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child

Article 29 - "Article 29 (of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child) limits the right of parents and others to educate children in private school by requiring that all such schools support both the charter and principles of the United Nations and a list of specific values and ideals. By contrast, Supreme Court case law has provided that a combination of parental rights and religious liberties provide a broader right of parents and private schools to control the values and curriculum of private education free from State interference."[2]

[edit] References

  1. ^ a b c The National Education Directory Australia: Private Schools in Australia (accessed:07-08-2007)
  2. ^ David M. Smolin, Overcoming Religious Objections to the Convention on the Rights of the Child, Article 29, 104 at [1] - See Susan H. Bitensky, Educating the Child for a Productive Life, in CHILDREN’S RIGHTS IN AMERICA 181 (Cynthia Price Cohen & Howard A. Davidson eds., 1990) (referring to “fundamentalist” curriculum used in some private religious schools which evidences hostility toward the United Nations). Relevant cases include Runyon v. McCrary, 427 U.S. 160 (1976); Wisconsin v. Yoder, 406 U.S. 205 (1972); Pierce v. Society of Sisters, 268 U.S. 510 (1925); Meyer v. Nebraska, 262 U.S. 390 (1923).

[edit] See also

[edit] Bibliography

  • Hein, David (4 January 2004). What has happened to Episcopal schools? The Living Church, 228, no. 1, 21-22.

[edit] External links

National and International Private School Associations

Private School Statistics

v • d • e
Schools
By educational stage Primary education • Secondary education • Tertiary education
By funding Free education • Free school • Private school • Public school • Independent school • Independent school (UK) • Charter school
By style of education Day school • Alternative school • Parochial school • Boarding school • Magnet school • Cyberschool • K-12
By scope Compulsory education • Comprehensive school • Vocational school • University-preparatory school
By name Grammar school • High school • Secondary school • Middle school • Primary school • Elementary school • University-preparatory school • Vocational school • Gymnasium • College • University
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