Private schools, also known as
independent schools, are not administered
by local, state or national
governments;
thus, they retain the right to select their
students and are funded in whole or in part by
charging their students
tuition, rather than
relying on public (
state) funds.
In the
United
Kingdom
and several other Commonwealth countries, the use of
the term is generally restricted to primary and secondary educational levels; it is
almost never used of universities and
other tertiary
institutions. Private education in
North America covers the whole gamut of
educational activity, ranging from pre-school to tertiary level
institutions. Annual tuitions at K-12 schools range from nothing at
tuition-free schools to more than $45,000 at several
New England prep schools.
The secondary level includes schools offering grades 7 through 12
and grade 13. This category includes
university-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 school's
financial 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 and many
military academies are privately owned or
operated as well.
Religiously affiliated and denominational schools form a
subcategory of private schools. Some such schools teach
religious education, together with the
usual academic subjects to impress their particular faith's beliefs
and traditions in the students who attend. 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 Roman Catholic 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, although in the name of educational quality, most
comply with regulations relating to the educational content of
classes. Religious private schools often simply add religious
instruction to the courses provided by local public schools.
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.
Situation by country
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 (e.g. playing fields, swimming
pools, 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. Unlike most public
schools, most Australian private school students are subject to
strict dress codes - for example, a
blazer
for boys. Public schools are more affordable and have less strict
clothing codes, although many public schools are getting stricter
in uniform.
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.
There are two main categories of private schools in Australia:
Catholic schools and Independent schools.
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,
Sisters of the Good Samaritan,
Marist Brothers,
De La Salle Brothers,(Missionary
sisters of the society of Mary, SMSM) or the
Congregation of Christian
Brothers. Independent Catholic school fees vary, ranging from
low to high. However, fees 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.
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, such as the
Anglican Church,
Uniting Church and
Presbyterian Church, 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, some Catholic schools fall into this category as well,
e.g.
Waverley College, Waverley, Saint Ignatius'
College, Riverview
, and Saint
Joseph's College, Hunters Hill, as well as Loreto
Kirribilli
and Normanhurst
for girls.
On the other hand, many independent schools are quite new, often
small and not necessarily traditional at all, such as Lorien
Novalis, as school based on Rudolf Steiner's educational system,
also known as Waldorf education.
Canada
In
Ontario
, some public high school students would enrol in
private high schools to boost their grades. There was
significant concern from educators from both the public school
systems, as well as from post-secondary institutions and the
Provincial Ministry of
Education that students who enrolled in private schools would
be unable to cope with the Ontario curriculum and likened this
situation to
cheating, since private school
students would often be guaranteed high marks for little to no
effort, as long as they paid tuitions to the private
schools.
Columbia
International College is the largest private boarding high
school in Canada.
Germany
In
Germany
, Article 7, Paragraph 4 of the Grundgesetz,
the constitution of Germany, guarantees
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 a
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 event 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 and/or offer scholarships,
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 offer 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.
Ireland
In the
Republic of
Ireland
, a private school ( ) receives no state support
(and as such, charges fees) and is, to some extent, not subject to
state control in relation to curriculum,
school day or school year, etc. There is, however, a limited
element of state assessment of private schools, because of the
requirement that the state ensure that children receive a certain
minimum education; Irish private schools must still work towards
the Junior Certificate and the
Leaving Certificate, for
example. Many private schools in Ireland also double as
boarding schools. The average fee is
around €5,000 annually for most schools, but some of these schools
also provide boarding and the fees may then rise up to €25,000 per
year. The fee-paying schools are usually run by a religious order,
i.e., the
Society of Jesus or
Congregation of
Christian Brothers, etc.
There are also a small number of private
international schools in Ireland,
including a
French school, a
Japanese school and a
German school.
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 or fully
funded by private individuals, private organizations and religious
groups, especially by the Christian missionaries. The ones that
accept government funds are called 'aided' schools. The private
'un-aided' schools are fully funded by private parties. 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 Schools and the
Birla Public School in Pilani
. 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. Preschool education is mostly limited to organized
neighbourhood nursery schools.
Delhi Public School, R K
Puram, Delhi Public School, Vasant
Kunj
and the Modern School
in New
Delhi
, Birla Public
School and Birla Balika
Vidyapeeth in Pilani (Rajasthan)
are some of the most prestigious private schools in Delhi.
These situations are more or less the same in the other countries
of the Indian subcontinent (South Asia) like Nepal, Pakistan,
etc.
Furthermore, the growing importance of The Doon School, Dehradun,
as one of India's most prestigious schoolshas had an increasingly
influential role in modern history. Producing some of the world's
most important writers andpoliticians.
Israel
In Israel, private colleges are different from public colleges in
that they are
for-profit schools.
They are not independent of government regulation, as the
Council for Higher
Education in Israel still has the authority to approve or deny
all of the academic programs and departments.
Netherlands
The Netherlands are over
two-thirds of state-funded schools operate autonomously, with many
of these schools being linked to faith groups. The
Programme for
International Student Assessment, coordinated by the
OECD, ranks the education in the Netherlands as the 9th
best in the world as of 2008, being significantly higher than the
OECD average.
Philippines
In the
Philippines
, the private sector has been a major provider of
educational services, accounting for about 7.5% of primary
enrollment, 32% of secondary enrollment and about 80% of tertiary
enrollment. Private schools have proven to be efficient in
resource utilization. Per unit costs in private schools are
generally lower when compared to public schools. This situation is
more evident at the tertiary level. Government regulations have
given private education more flexibility and autonomy in recent
years, notably by lifting the moratorium on applications for new
courses, new schools and conversions, by liberalizing tuition fee
policy for private schools, by replacing values education for third
and fourth years with English, mathematics and natural science at
the option of the school, and by issuing the revised Manual of
Regulations for Private Schools in August 1992.
The Education Service Contracting scheme of the government provides
financial assistance for tuition and other school fees of students
turned away from public high schools because of enrollment
overflows. The Tuition Fee Supplement is geared to students
enrolled in priority courses in post-secondary and non-degree
programmes, including vocational and technical courses. The Private
Education Student Financial Assistance is made available to
underprivileged, but deserving high school graduates, who wish to
pursue college/technical education in private colleges and
universities.
In the school year 2001/02, there were 4,529 private elementary
schools (out of a total of 40,763) and 3,261 private secondary
schools (out of a total of 7,683). In 2002/03, there were 1,297
private higher education institutions (out of a total of
1,470).
Portugal
In
Portugal
, private schools were traditionally set up by
foreign expatriates and diplomats in order to cater for their
educational needs. Portuguese speaking private schools are
mainly concentrated in Lisbon
and Porto
. The
Ministério da Educação acts as the supervisory and regulatory body
for all schools, including international schools.
Portuguese private and international schools include St Julians
School,
Vale Verde
International School
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.
South African private schools represent some of the finest in the
world. More notably, there are far more quality boys schools as
compared to girls schools.
Private schools, such as Michaelhouse
, St John's College
, Crawford College, Brescia
House, Hilton College
, Kearsney College,
St Stithians College and
St David's Marist Inanda,
St
Andrew's College, Grahamstown consistently turn out top
pupils.
Sweden
In
Sweden
, pupils are
free to choose a private school and the private school gets paid
the same amount as municipal schools. Over 10% of Swedish
pupils were enrolled in private schools in 2008. Sweden is
internationally known for this innovative
school voucher model that provides Swedish
pupils with the opportunity to choose the school they prefer.
For instance, the biggest school chain,
Kunskapsskolan (“The Knowledge School”),
offers 30 schools and a web-based environment, has 700 employees
and teaches nearly 10,000 pupils.
Per Unckel, Governor of Stockholm and
former Minister of Education, summarizes the advantages of Swedish
system: "Education is so important that you can’t just leave it to
one producer. Because we know from monopoly systems that they do
not fulfill all wishes".
The Swedish system has been recommended to
Barack Obama.
United Kingdom
Private schools generally prefer to be called
independent schools, because of
their freedom to operate outside of government regulation, but are
colloquially referred to as public schools. The reason is
historical: many older schools were formed when the majority of
education was still by private tutoring, thus early schools were
considered public in contrast to those held in private for the
children of a household. There could be no reference to public
financing, as none existed, while schools were charitable or
monastic foundations which might or might not charge fees. The name
was confirmed by the nineteenth-century
Public Schools Acts and has stuck
since, but only in England.
According to
The Good Schools
Guide: "Approximately 7 per cent of children in education
[in the UK] are at fee-paying schools." It is unclear what
proportion of parents can "afford" to forgo free state education.
Those who are induced to do so have a wide variety of different
motives, including:• academic standards, which are generally
higher, than those found in schools in the state sector• a wider
education, taught in longer school hours, with subjects, options or
levels beyond the national curriculum• well-endowed facilities,
sometimes in historic buildings with extensive grounds• lower
pupil-teacher ratios, and teaching staff attracted by higher
salaries• extra-curricular opportunities, available due to the
longer school days, commonly in sport, drama and music, but also
many other possible fields• a distinctive educational tradition; or
one with particular characteristics not offered at local state
schools (such as a stage school, religious instruction, boarding
education, classical studies, a more competitive ethos, or a
particular theory of education)• perceived social advantages or
privileges, including the "public-school accent" and networking• a
family tradition of attending a particular school, which may have
lasted for generations• offers of unacceptable state schools
Many independent schools are single-sex (though this is becoming
less common).
Fees range from under £1,000 per term to £7,000 and above per term
for a day pupil, with wide variations depending on the age of the
child, the staff/pupil ratio and so on – and up to £9,000+ per term
for boarding. Many parents must make substantial sacrifices to
afford such fees, but there may be a large number of scholarships
and burasaries available.
Independent primary schools are called
preparatory school, 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 which are
members of the Headmasters' and
Headmistresses' Conference, such as City of
London Freemen's School
, Eton
, St Paul's School, Fettes College
, Harrow
, Manchester
Grammar School
, Methodist College Belfast
, Rugby
School
, Shrewsbury School
, Stonyhurst College
, Tonbridge
School
, Wellington College
, Westminster
, Winchester
. Many of these schools are boarding
schools.
Many private schools in England and Wales have a history of helping
the disadvantaged, whether or not they have charitable foundations.
One in four children come from postcodes on or below national
average income and one in three receives fee assistance. However,
since actual pupils' family incomes, which may be well above the
average for a particular postcode area, were not determined, these
figures are largely meaningless.
Many private schools have a stated 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.
Until the 1970s, all state school students were required to sit an
11+ exam at that age, and the more able students would then be
offered a place at a local
grammar
school, as opposed to a
secondary modern school. Although
these have generally been replaced by all ability
comprehensive schools, some grammar
schools (often the ones with an established heritage) were able to
become independent.
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. About half of the schools specialising in special
educational needs are private schools.
United States
In the United States, the term "private school" can be correctly
applied to any school for which the facilities and funding are not
provided by the federal, state or local government; as opposed to a
"public school", which is operated by the government or in the case
of charter schools, independently with government funding and
regulation. A small minority of private schools are non-religious
institutions, but the vast majority of them are operated by
religious organizations.
Private schools are generally exempt from most educational
regulations, but tend to follow the spirit of regulations
concerning the content of courses in an attempt to provide a level
of education equal to or better than that available in public
schools. Additionally, many students (particularly those at the
transition between primary and secondary school) transfer to a
public school and therefore, require similar preparation to that
available in public schools.
In the nineteenth century, as a response to the perceived
domination of the public school systems by Protestant political and
religious ideas, many
Roman
Catholic parish churches, dioceses and religious orders
established schools, which operate entirely without government
funding. For many years, the vast majority of private schools in
the United States were
Catholic schools. A similar perception
(possibly relating to the evolution vs. creationism debates)
emerged in the late twentieth century among Protestants, which has
resulted in the widespread establishment of new, private
schools.
In many parts of the United States, after the 1954 decision in
Brown Board of Education that demanded US schools desegregate "with
all deliberate speed," local families organized a wave of private
"Christian Academies." In much of the US South, white students have
migrated to the Academies, while public schools have become in turn
more heavily concentrated with African American students. See
List of private
schools in Mississippi. The academic content of the Academies
is College Preparatory.
Funding for private schools is generally provided through student
tuition, endowments, and donations and grants from religious
organizations or private individuals. Government funding for
religious schools is either subject to restrictions or possibly
forbidden, according to the courts' interpretation of the
Establishment Clause
of the First Amendment. Non-religious private schools
theoretically could qualify for such funding, but prefer the
advantages of independent control of their student admissions and
course content.
A similar concept, recently emerging from within the public school
system, is the concept of "
charter
schools", which are technically independent public schools, but
in many respects operate similarly to non-religious private
schools.
Private
schooling in the United States has been debated by educator, lawmaker and
parents, since the beginnings of compulsory education in Massachusetts
in 1852. The Supreme
Court
precedent appears to favor
educational choice, so long as states may set standards for
educational accomplishment. Some of the most relevant
Supreme Court case law on this is as follows:
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).
There is a potential conflict between the values espoused in the
above cited cases and the limitations set forward in Article 29 of
the
United Nations
Convention on the Rights of the Child, which is described
below.
Limits by the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the
Child
David M. Smolin, an American law professor, has
stated that:
Commentators have noted a potential conflict between
Article 29 of the CRC and current constitutional doctrine within
the United States. 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.
See also
Notes
- The National Education Directory Australia: Private
Schools in Australia (accessed:07-08-2007)
- [1]
- [2]
- [3]
- ISC Annual Census 2007
-
http://www.goodschoolsguide.co.uk/education-advice-and-help/scholarships-and-bursaries/money-matters.html?Itemid=52
- ISC Social Diversity Study
- David M.
Smolin, Overcoming Religious Objections to the Convention
on the Rights of the Child, Article 29, 104 at [4] - 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).
References
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National and International Private School
Associations
Private School Statistics
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