Arguments for and against private schools

Last Updated on November 3, 2026 by Karl Thompson

Private schools (also called independent schools) are schools that charge fees rather than being funded by the state. In England, 6.3% of pupils attended an independent school in 2025/26. They are a small part of the education system, but they matter a great deal to sociologists, because they are where the advantages of wealth and education meet most clearly.

This post sets out the facts about private schools, including the VAT on fees introduced in 2025, the evidence on results, university entry and top jobs, and the arguments for and against them. It’s useful for evaluating the Marxist perspective and the New Right view of education, and for any question about equality of educational opportunity, on AQA Paper 1 (7192/1).

What are private schools?

Private schools are funded mainly by the fees parents pay, rather than by the government through taxation. ‘Private’ and ‘independent’ mean the same thing, and both terms are used in this post.

	State schools	Private (independent) schools
Who pays?	The government, from taxation. Free to attend	Mainly parents’ fees, plus donations and endowments
Who gets in?	Admissions follow the School Admissions Code	The school sets its own admissions, often with entrance exams. Ability to pay comes first
National curriculum?	Maintained schools must follow it	Not required
Share of pupils in England (2025/26)	About 94%	6.3%

Confusingly, the most famous private schools are called ‘public schools’. Eton and Harrow are ‘public schools’ in this sense: the term is used for the oldest and most prestigious fee-paying schools, many of them boarding schools. It has nothing to do with being run by the state.

Private schools range from small prep schools for younger children to large secondary schools and sixth forms, and many take pupils from age 3 to 18. Most are day schools; some take boarders.

Private schools in numbers

Most of the detailed figures come from the Independent Schools Council (ISC), which represents 1,455 member schools across the UK. Its census covers its own members only, not every private school.

Measure (ISC census, January 2026)	Figure
ISC member schools	1,455
Pupils	526,611 (down 3.5% on 2025)
Pupils receiving any help with fees	34.9%
Pupils receiving means-tested bursaries	7.0%
Pupils paying no fees at all	8,934
Average day fee per term (excluding VAT)	£6,226, up 4.4% on the previous year
Pupils with special educational needs (SEND)	23.5%
Pupils whose parents live overseas	4.4%

Sources: ISC Census 2026; DfE Schools, pupils and their characteristics 2025/26 (the 6.3% share).

VAT on private school fees

The biggest change to private schools in decades came in 2025. Until then, fees were exempt from VAT because private schools counted as education providers. The Labour government elected in 2024 ended this:

From 1 January 2025, VAT at the standard rate of 20% applies to private school fees, including boarding. To stop parents avoiding it, fees paid from 29 July 2024 for terms starting in January 2025 or later were taxed too.

From April 2025, private schools in England with charitable status lost the business rates relief that charities get.
Pupils whose education, health and care plan (EHCP) requires a private school place, funded by their local authority, aren’t affected.

A legal challenge by parents and schools, arguing that the VAT breached their human rights, was dismissed by the High Court in June 2025.

The arguments before VAT was introduced

For taxing fees. Supporters argued that private schools are, in effect, businesses selling a service, and should pay tax like other businesses, and that the money could be spent on state schools. The Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) estimated that VAT and the business rates change would raise about £1.6 billion a year. The government linked the revenue to its education plans, including 6,500 new teachers. The IFS also found that average private school fees (£15,200 per pupil in 2022–23, after bursaries) were nearly 90% higher than state school spending per pupil (£8,000), a gap that taxing fees would do nothing to close but which, for critics, showed how unequal the two sectors had become.

Against taxing fees. The ISC and other opponents argued that higher fees would force families to move their children to state schools, adding to state costs and cancelling out some of the revenue. They also argued that the change would hit middle-income families who stretch to pay fees, not the very rich, and could reduce the partnerships some private schools run with state schools. The IFS estimated that private school numbers would fall by 3–7% in the medium to long run, around 20,000 to 40,000 pupils, which it described as a small effect relative to the state sector.

What has happened since? Pupil numbers at ISC schools fell by 3.5% between January 2025 and January 2026. It’s too early to say how much of this is due to VAT rather than other factors, such as the falling number of children and rising fees.

Private and state school results

Private school pupils get much better exam results on average. At A-level in 2026, almost 49% of entries from private schools were graded A or A*, compared with about 23% in academies and maintained schools and 28.3% across all schools. For the full table by type of school, see my post on social class and educational achievement statistics.

The 2021 gap

The gap widened sharply when exams were cancelled during the pandemic and grades were awarded by teachers. According to Ofqual’s analysis, the share of A-level grades at A or A* in independent schools rose from 60.8% in 2020 to 70.1% in 2021, while in comprehensives it rose from 33.1% to 39.3%.

Possible explanations include:

Less disruption. Smaller classes and better resources may have made it easier for private schools to keep teaching during school closures.

Home learning. Middle-class parents, with more space, equipment and cultural capital, may have been better able to support learning at home.
Prior attainment. State school pupils may have fallen further behind during the first year of disruption, and the effect built up.
Pressure on teachers. Critics suggested that teachers in private schools, assessing pupils whose parents pay fees, may have faced more pressure to award high grades. This is speculation: the figures show a bigger rise, not its cause.

The 2021 figures also make a good Research Methods point: grades awarded by teachers aren’t directly comparable with exam grades from other years, so the ‘gap’ partly reflects a change in how results were produced.

What do the results actually show?

Private school pupils differ from state school pupils in many ways besides their school: family income, parents’ education, cultural capital, and often prior attainment, because some private schools select by ability. Better results could reflect any of these. The statistics can’t separate the effect of the school from the effect of the family.

Extra time in exams

Pupils with special educational needs can be given ‘access arrangements’ in exams, the most common being 25% extra time. Ofqual’s figures for 2024–25 show that 25% extra time was approved for between 22.4% and 32.1% of students assessed in independent schools, compared with between 14.6% and 22.0% in state-funded secondary schools. (Ofqual gives ranges because its data isn’t linked to exam entries, and it withdrew and revised its earlier figures.)

Sociologists can read this in two ways:

A middle-class strategy. Better-off parents can pay for private assessments and know how to work the system, so their children are more likely to get a diagnosis and the extra time that goes with it. This fits Bourdieu’s idea of cultural capital, and labelling theory: a diagnosis gives a positive label (‘a bright pupil with dyslexia’) and practical help, while an undiagnosed pupil in a state school may simply be labelled as struggling. See labelling theory in education.
Better identification of need. Private schools report high levels of SEND (23.5% of ISC pupils) and have more staff time to assess pupils. On this reading, the gap shows that needs in state schools are under-identified, not that private school pupils are over-diagnosed.

Either way, the result is that private school pupils are more likely to get extra help in the exams that decide university places.

Private schools and top universities

In Access to Advantage (2018), the Sutton Trust looked at admissions to Oxford and Cambridge over three years (2015–2017). It found:

The eight schools with the most Oxbridge places, several of them leading private schools, sent 1,310 pupils between them. The 2,894 schools with two or fewer places each, about three-quarters of all schools and colleges, sent 1,220.
Independent schools made 34% of applications to Oxbridge but got 42% of places. Comprehensive schools made 32% of applications but got only 25% of places.

Independent school pupils were seven times as likely as comprehensive pupils to go to Oxbridge.
HOWEVER, the students accepted from all types of school had similar average A-level results, equivalent to A*A*A.

That last finding matters. It suggests the main barrier was not that Oxbridge turned down equally qualified state school applicants, but that fewer state school pupils reached the top grades and fewer applied. In the top fifth of schools by results, 11% of comprehensive pupils applied to Oxbridge, compared with 23% of private school pupils.

The picture has changed since. In 2024, 66.2% of UK students admitted to Oxford came from state schools, and 71% at Cambridge. But about 94% of pupils in England are in state schools, so private school pupils are still heavily over-represented. Critics argue that cultural capital, such as confidence in interviews and familiarity with Oxbridge, still gives privately educated applicants an advantage. Universities point to rising state school numbers and outreach work as evidence that access is widening.

Private schools and top jobs

The advantages continue after education. The Sutton Trust’s Elitist Britain 2025 found that, compared with 7% of the population as a whole:

Group	Privately educated (2025)
Senior judges	62%
House of Lords	52%
Newspaper columnists	50%
Permanent secretaries (senior civil servants)	47% (59% in 2019)
MPs	24% (29% in 2019)
Population as a whole	7%

Some of these figures are falling: the share of privately educated MPs is a record low. But private schooling is still strongly linked to the top positions in British society. For how Marxists use this evidence, see my post on the Marxist perspective on education.

Arguments for private schools

Parental choice and freedom. From a New Right or liberal perspective, parents have the right to spend their own money on their children’s education, as they can on anything else. Banning or restricting private schools would limit that freedom. Private schools also add to the diversity and choice in the education system that the New Right value.

High standards. Private schools offer smaller classes, specialist teachers and facilities for sport, music and the arts, and their results are high. Supporters argue that this shows what education can achieve with enough resources, and that private schools act as a benchmark for the state sector.

They save the state money. Every pupil at a private school is one the state doesn’t have to pay for. Supporters argue that parents who pay fees are paying twice, since they also pay the taxes that fund state schools.

Access for some less well-off pupils. About a third of ISC pupils receive some help with fees, and 7% receive means-tested bursaries. Supporters point to bursaries and partnerships with state schools as evidence that private schools widen opportunity.

The economy. British private schools attract pupils from overseas (4.4% of ISC pupils have parents living abroad) and their fees bring money into the country.

Arguments against private schools

They reproduce class inequality. From a Marxist perspective, private schools let wealthy families buy advantage for their children, which they then pass on into top universities and top jobs. Francis Green and David Kynaston, in Engines of Privilege: Britain’s Private School Problem (2019), argue that private schools give the children of the wealthy entrenched advantages, block social mobility and pass privilege down the generations, which conflicts with Britain’s commitment to equal opportunity.

They undermine meritocracy. If success depends partly on what parents can pay for, from smaller classes to private assessments for extra exam time, then the education system isn’t meritocratic. The best jobs may not go to the most able candidates.

An unequal share of resources. Private schools spend far more per pupil than state schools: average fees were nearly 90% higher than state spending per pupil in 2022–23, according to the IFS. Green and Kynaston argue this is a misuse of the nation’s educational resources. Critics add that extra resources make the biggest difference to pupils who are struggling, so concentrating them on already advantaged pupils produces less benefit for society as a whole.

Social segregation. Private schools separate the children of the wealthy from everyone else. Critics argue that this weakens social cohesion, and that leaders educated separately from most of the population may understand it less well.

Arguments for and against private schools: summary

Arguments for	Arguments against
Parents’ right to choose how to spend their money (New Right, liberal)	They let wealthy families buy advantage and reproduce class inequality (Marxist; Green and Kynaston)
High standards, small classes, broad facilities	Better results partly reflect pupils’ backgrounds, not just the schools
They save the state the cost of educating 6% of pupils	They take a much bigger share of resources per pupil (IFS)
Bursaries and partnerships widen access	Only 7% of ISC pupils get means-tested bursaries
They attract overseas pupils and money	Over-representation in top universities and top jobs undermines meritocracy

Private schools in the exam

Private schools are useful evidence in essays on social class and achievement, the role of education (Marxist and New Right views), meritocracy and education policy. For example:

AQA June 2021, Question 04: “Applying material from Item B and your knowledge, evaluate the view that the education system is meritocratic.” [30 marks] Private schools are strong evidence against the view. See my post are schools meritocratic?
For a practice essay on policy and equality, see assess the view that education policies since 1988 have improved equality of educational opportunity.

Use them carefully. The best answers don’t just say private schools give an advantage. They weigh how much of that advantage comes from the school and how much from the family.

Sociology of Education Revision Bundle

If you like this sort of thing, then you might like my sociology of education revision notes bundle, written by Karl Thompson, who taught A-level sociology for eighteen years and spent twelve as an AQA examiner, marking all three papers on the current specification.

Signposting and Related Posts

This post has been written for students studying the education module as part of AQA A-level sociology. Related posts:

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Sources

Department for Education (2026) Schools, Pupils and their Characteristics: 2025/26.
Green, F. and Kynaston, D. (2019) Engines of Privilege: Britain’s Private School Problem, Bloomsbury.

HM Treasury and HMRC (2024) VAT on Private School Fees and Removing the Charitable Rates Relief for Private Schools: Technical Note, 29 July.
Independent Schools Council (2026) ISC Census and Annual Report 2026.
Institute for Fiscal Studies (2023) Tax, Private School Fees and State School Spending, Report R263.

Ofqual (2025) Access Arrangements for GCSE, AS and A Level: 2024 to 2025 Academic Year.
Sutton Trust (2018) Access to Advantage: The Influence of Schools and Place on Admissions to Top Universities.
Sutton Trust (2025) Elitist Britain 2025.
University of Cambridge and University of Oxford undergraduate admissions statistics, 2024.

ALR and others v Chancellor of the Exchequer [2025] EWHC 1467 (Admin).