Independent school

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding reliable references. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (March 2009)

An independent school is a school which is independent in terms of its finances and governance; it is not dependent upon national or local government for financing its operations nor reliant on taxpayer contributions, and is instead funded by a combination of tuition charges, gifts, and in some cases the investment yield of an endowment. It is governed by a board of directors that is elected by an independent means and a system of governance that ensures its independent operation. It may receive government funds. However, its board must be independent.

The terms independent school and private school are often synonyms in popular usage outside the United Kingdom. Independent schools may have a religious affiliation, but the more precise usage of the term excludes parochial and other schools if there is a financial dependence upon, or governance subordinate to, outside organizations. These definitions generally apply equally to primary education, secondary education, and tertiary education institutions.

The Netherlands are over two-thirds of state-funded schools operate autonomously, with many of these schools being linked to faith groups. ^[1] 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.^[2]

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.^{[3][4][5][6][7][8]}

Contents 1 Netherlands 2 Sweden 3 United Kingdom 4 United States 5 Australia 6 United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child 7 See also 8 Notes 9 Further reading 10 External links

[edit] Netherlands

The Dutch constitution allows both Christian (nowadays all religious) schools to be government funded. The Christian political party (Anti-Revolutionaries) won the equality in funding for their education, by agreeing upon general voting in exchange in the so called Schoolstrijd ("School Struggle"). The outcome of the debate is that schools in the Netherlands are mostly state funded while run independently. ^[9]

[edit] Sweden

Independent schools are a fast growing market and over 10% of Swedish pupils were enrolled in independent schools in 2008.^[3]

Swedish education is known for being a world leader in free-market education.^[3] Sweden introduced education vouchers in 1992, one of the first in the world after Netherlands. Anyone can start a for-profit school and the municipality must pay new schools the same amount as municipal schools get. When there is a better private alternative, pupils are free to choose it.

For instance, the biggest school chain, Kunskapsskolan (“Knowledge Schools”), offers 30 schools and a web-based environment, has 700 employees, and teaches nearly 10,000 pupils.

The Swedish system is popular.^[3][10]

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".^[8]

The Left’s initial hostility to alternative private schools has diminished.

The Swedish system has been recommended to Barack Obama.^[8][11]

[edit] United Kingdom

This section does not cite any references or sources. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (March 2009)

In the United Kingdom, independent education has grown continually for the past twenty years. In England, Wales and Northern Ireland but not in Scotland, the more prestigious independent schools are known as public schools, sometimes categorised as major and minor public schools. Membership of the Headmasters' and Headmistresses' Conference is what defines a school as a public school, though this includes many independent grammar schools. When founded, such schools were often named 'public' schools to make clear that pupil attendance was not limited to the immediate locality of the school, and to differentiate them from private tutors who exclusively taught the sons of the nobility; some argue that although the introduction of tuition fees was inevitable, it has harmed their raison d'être.

In Scotland, those schools which are not state funded are known as private schools or in the vernacular of some regions known as Merchant's Schools, (e.g. in Trainspotting). This also applies in the instance of Merchant Taylor School located in Liverpool.

[edit] United States

Independent schools in the United States educate a tiny fraction of the school-age population (slightly over 1% of the entire school-age population, and only around 10% of the 10% of students who go to private schools). The essential distinction between independent schools and other private schools is independence itself, essentially independence in governance and in finance: i.e., independent schools own, govern, and finance themselves. In contrast, public schools are funded and governed by government and most parochial/diocesan schools are owned, governed, and financed by a church organization. The National Association of Independent Schools (NAIS) is a membership organization of American pre-college independent schools. See List of independent Catholic schools in the United States. The membership organization for independent tertiary education institutions is the National Association of Independent Colleges and Universities.^[12]

[edit] Australia

This section does not cite any references or sources. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (March 2009)

In Australia, independent or private schools are the fastest growing education sector and over 85% of them have a religious or church affiliation. There are currently 1,078 independent schools catering for 491,000 students in Australia (as of 2006). Some independent schools are prestigious and enrolment highly sought after, with tuition fees to match, however since the 1980s the number of low-fee schools catering for 'average' Australians, and in some cases without any religious affiliation, has increased significantly. Independent schools in Australia make up nearly 15% of total enrolments while Catholic schools, which usually have lower fees, also make up a sizeable proportion (18%) and are usually regarded as a school sector of their own within the broad category of independent schools. Enrolments in non-government schools has been growing steadily at the expense of enrolments in government schools which have seen their enrolment share reduce from 78% to 67% since 1970. Australian independent schools differ slightly from those in the United States as the Australian Government provides funding to all schools including independent schools using a 'needs based' funding scheme based on a Socio-Economic Status (SES) score. The school's SES score is derived by selecting a sample of parent's addresses and mapping these to a Census Collector District from the Australian Bureau of Statistics Census. The household income & education data is then used to derive an SES score for each school, which places it on a sliding scale of funding entitlement. On average, funding granted to an independent school is 47% of that required to operate a government school, the residual being made up by tuition fees paid by parents.

[edit] United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child

Article 29 - "Article 29 (of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child) claims to limit 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, United States 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."^[13]

[edit] See also

• Independent school (UK)
• Private school
• Preparatory school
• Parochial school
• High school
• Public school
• Boarding school
• Independent Schools Athletic League

[edit] Notes

[edit] Further reading

• Hein, David (4 January 2004). What Has Happened to Episcopal Schools? The Living Church, 228, no. 1, 21-22.
• Windrush School.

[edit] External links

• National Association of Independent Schools (U.S.A.)
• Canadian Association of Independent Schools
• Independent Schools Council of Australia
• Association of Independent Schools of NSW (Australia)
• The Independent Schools Directory 2008/09
• The Independent School Report (U.S.A.)
• Guide to Independent Schools in Canada
• The Hobsons UK Boarding Schools Guide 2008/09

v • d • e Schools By educational stage Primary education Primary school • Elementary school Intermediate education Middle school Secondary education Grammar school • High school • Secondary school • Upper school • University-preparatory school • Gymnasium Tertiary education Vocational school • College • Community college • University By funding Free education • Private school • Public school • Independent school • Independent school (UK) • Charter school • Academy By style of education Day school • Alternative school • Parochial school • Free school • Boarding school • Magnet school • Virtual school • K-12 By scope Compulsory education • Democratic education • Comprehensive school • Vocational school • University-preparatory school