Some food for thought . . . I heard an astonishing statistic recently and I still am not quite sure I can believe it! Here it is . . .
In the UK, a quarter of all 11-year-olds left their primary school in 2008 without managing to attain even the BASIC standards set for English and Maths.
By contrast, the standard of primary school education in Sweden is very high – but despite this, approximately 10-15% of Swedish schools have left the state sector to be run by the parents of the pupils.
The Conservative Party believe that a similar percentage of primary schools in the UK (including many in rural areas) would leave the state sector to set up parent-run schools.
It’s not diffiult to see why parents are looking for alternatives when the statistics for passing even the basic standards in the essential subjects are so poor.