One would not assume state school students are likely to do much better at university than private school students, but not everything is as it seems. Although private school students often come out with better grades on average and receive much more personalised teaching and support throughout their school life, in a lot of ways, this leaves them underprepared for the real world. Malcolm X once said that “education is the passport to the future” – and I endeavour to consider the extent to which this is true.
The better position of state school students at university level education can be attributed to multiple factors: private school students are often overrun with additional learning aids in the private sector such as personal tutors, small class sizes and academic resources which assist their learning. Therefore, the independent and individualised learning approach at university may be unfamiliar to the privately educated student in comparison to the state educated student who most likely already possesses such skills. During university applications, privately educated students receive intensive coaching- whereas state educated students are subjected to a lot of their own independent research and hence if they gain the same place as their fellow privately educated peers they can be viewed with greater individual ability. Arguably, state school students might try harder at university due to greater incentives to achieve social mobility, whereas the privately educated student can sit back without concerns for life after university as a result of their undue higher social and economic status.
Speaking from personal experience at both private and state schools- it is my judgement that private education does advantage a student in terms of their opportunities and social connections with elitist organisations- hence improving access to top universities such as Oxford and Cambridge. However, I am inclined to suggest that the circumstances of private school education can be detrimental to a student in regards to their actual learning. Why should private schools be allowed to construct their own national curriculum, avoid mainstream Ofsted inspections, or even employ unqualified teaching staff? This leaves a lot of room for the private sector to fabricate and construct the overachievement of private school pupils- whilst following their own unsupervised protocols. Parents pay approximately 50% of their wage towards their child’s private education- therefore it is to be expected that they should be predicted high academic grading, regardless of the child’s actual academic ability. This concept consequently leaves privately educated students one step behind when put against state-educated students who have not experienced any special treatment in earlier education and therefore have achieved their place at university without the aid of any unfair means or additional assistance.
After the application process, the previous education of a student at university becomes largely irrelevant. I could not recall which of my peers were privately educated or state educated- what primarily matters to me and those around me is the grades achieved in college or sixth form which led them to their place here at university. Hence, I can argue that the previous advantage of private school students is eradicated at higher education level. This judgement is not without knowledge that private school graduates are still likely to earn more money than state school graduates, but this is due to an entrenched privilege of social connections giving them better access to top jobs and not the advantage they had within a university setting.
As Albert Einstein once said: “Education is what remains once one has forgotten what one has learned in school.” . This denotes that the importance of where and how an individual is educated is largely overestimated in the grand scheme of real life- Einstein attributes the greatest learning to real life experiences outside of an educational setting, therefore, he would neglect the view that an individual is inherently disadvantaged or advantaged as a result of their education experience.
As you might have guessed, I am inclined to disagree with the assumption that privately educated students have an advantage at university due to the circumstances of state education better equipping a student for university-style teaching. Whilst the existence of private education is still a source of crippling inequality that prohibits educational equality of opportunity- it does not have a large impact on university education itself but rather wider life experience.
