Independent school pupils are “frightened” about the possible impact of Labour’s VAT levy on fees and the policy could cause “a lot of disruption and heartache” in the coming years, a leading headteacher has said.
Helen Pike, master of Magdalen College School in Oxford, said that she had asked her pupils “from all walks of life” what they think about the policy. She found that they were “really frightened about what might happen, particularly if they’re having to leave at A-level where there is a serious lack of places.”
During a debate tackling VAT on fees chaired by Sir Anthony Seldon last night (Feb 27), she said: “It’s all very well to have these highfalutin, social engineering ideas, but actually, it may be causing quite a lot of disruption and heartache during the next 10 years and there’s no risk assessment of this…it’s not a policy, we’ve no idea what’s going to happen.”
In her speech at the event hosted by Intelligence Squared in London’s Conway Hall, she stressed that VAT on fees was “more of a headline than a policy at this point”. She said it was unfair that schools, children and education were being “kicked about” like political footballs.
She said that, like Jaffa Cakes, there had been a debate over whether private schools should be subject to VAT.
“Fortunately for McVities, the Jaffa Cake did not find itself on the front line of the culture wars,” she said.
“Unfortunately, for fee-paying, tax-paying independent school parents, private education is in that firing line.
She added: “This debate isn’t really about VAT alone, it’s about whether private schools ought to exist at all and that’s the lurking agenda.”
She said she would “rather not live in a society where there is a yawning gulf between the funding being spent on different children” but argued parents going private were “not snobs” and making “difficult choices for rational reasons”.
She added that the predicted £1.5bn raised through the VAT levy would be a “drop in the ocean” compared to what needed to be spent in the state sector even to bring teachers’ pay in line with inflation.
Ms Pike, who was arguing for the motion “VAT should not be charged on fees”, went head to head with educational campaigner Melissa Benn, who said the VAT plans were “an unusual act of boldness on Labour’s part” and “a small but rational move in the right direction”.
Ms Benn stressed that only 1 per cent of pupils in private schools received full bursaries and highlighted the website of a leading independent school which said “families with an income of only £124,000 per year or only net assets of £1.4m may be eligible for a bursary.”
She said the Independent Schools Council makes a “huge amount of play” about partnerships but said she was “sceptical” about their impact.
She said: “I’m sceptical as a state school parent who saw how partnerships worked on the ground. I’m afraid a lot had the flavour of charity in the Victorian sense which felt at worst insulting, at best patronising to those in state schools.”
Ms Benn said a “great noise” had been made about it but charging VAT was actually “a small policy shift” that would have minimal impact on independent schools.
Fraser Nelson, editor of The Spectator, arguing for the motion, highlighted the opportunities now available to children in state schools and the far higher numbers going to Oxbridge.
VAT on fees, he said, might “force private schools in on themselves” when they should actually be encouraged to expand their bursary schemes.
Left-wing commentator Ash Sarkar, speaking against the motion, added that charitable status for private schools was “a con” and the “crumbs” offered through bursaries and partnerships were “vastly outweighed by the lost opportunities at societal level” by allowing private schools to exist.