By Dr Alex Moseley

The first BIG QUESTION that we must deal with is SHOULD I SEND MY CHILD TO SCHOOL? That's the starting point for any inquiry into education. I shall be building a section on HOME EDUCATION later, but the question that we should be dealing with is NOT "WHAT SCHOOL" but "WHY SCHOOL?"

That said, there are many reasons for why parents then move onto thinking about which school is best for the child. Arguably, private or independent schools offer an edge here.

But let me state that I do not and will not take any commissions for advising on local state or private schools, as my advice to clients is always to be given ethically, sincerely, and without any implicit or explicit motivation - should a school wish to advertise on the site, that's up to them, or rather it is random if it is generated by google ads!

Private schools have to adapt to market conditions - they therefore tend to be that much more responsive to what parents and students want (think about how universities have had to cater for a larger number of fee-paying students in the past decade). Having said that, schools, by virtue of their institutional status (they are their own systems) come as a package deal and there's little that a parent or a pupil can do to alter the ethos of the school - so a school must be chosen in accordance with the pupil's psychological as much as mental abilities. There is a greated plurality in the private sector - with the state schools, you get the national curriculum and one-size fits all educational policies thrust on the hapless students and often hapless teachers, but in the private sector there is more leeway for adjustments to economic and social changes without (for the most part) being at the beck and call of fashionable policies and trends in government circles. So, if the funds permit it, it may be worth it.

On the other hand, most of us face increasingly high taxes and state intervention in our daily lives and business that we cannot afford to send our children to private schools. Arguably, if the government monopoly on education were broken up, teachers pay would adjust according to local demand and supply conditions and some teachers would be paid more, some less, but overall education would cost the economy a lot less than it does today. It is costly precisely because the state interferes so much with it, and being a monopolist, the unions battle for their share of the great pedagogical pie that is alloted by the powers that be (rather than parents!). Education should cost a fraction of what it does today - and that would mean (with lower costs and lower taxes to boot) many more would be able to afford to choose their child's education from a range of suppliers. One can imagine small schools, private tutors, large mass production schools, charity schools, company funded schools, philanthropically invested schools all vying for your child - it's hard to swallow for some people, but SCHOOLING IS A COMMODITY and the market system serves producers and consumers much better than any form of centrally controlled, tax-funded system.

So the nature of the political system that we have today means that for most of us private schooling is not an option. We must therefore be more judicious about which school we send our children to (if sending them to school is the only realistic option): we must inquire, talk to other parents, to other children to find out about the school: does it suit? You don't have to send your child to the nearest school just because 'it is on the doorstep': we're talking a massive life-time investment into your child and you have to do some groundwork (just as if you were buying a house or a car) to ensure that you have chosen well. The time that a child spends in school is critical and these pages will examine issues that come up and offer parents thoughtful (and provocative - otherwise, I'm not doing my job as a philosopher!) commentaries.

Alex