Eton to spend millions on state schools.

Eton – that bastion of wealthy privilege – is to spend £3 million expanding into setting up state schools in the forgotten north with the avowed intention of helping children from deprived backgrounds get into Cambridge and Oxford Universities.

£50,000-a-term.

Founded by Henry  VI in 1440, Eton is still a haven for Britain’s tail-coat-wearing male elite. Twenty British Prime Ministers studied at the school. It costs nearly £50,000 a year in fees. Prince William and Prince Harry went there.

This week, the Department of Education gave Eton the green light to set up three sixth-form schools in the Black Country, Teesside and Greater Manchester, the Daily Telegraph reported.

“A good all round education.”

In the free schools in Dudley, Middlesbrough and Oldham, bright pupils from poor backgrounds will have money lavished upon them. The aim is to give them what the Berkshire school calls a good all round education.

Eton will choose 240 pupils, whom it feels have a fighting chance of getting into Oxbridge. They will range from children from disadvantaged postcodes, to those who would stand a chance of becoming the first person in their families to go to university.

Many will ask the reason why Eton is paying for education for the poor ?

Close the north-south divide.  

Eton’s version is that it wants to close the North-South divide. 

The school chose Dudley, Middlesbrough and Oldham because they were areas where pupils earned good GCSEs, but failed to convert this into an Oxbridge place.

Plus, of all of the schools who were offered places at Oxbridge – only two of them were outside the affluent South of England.  

“Such an equality opportunity cannot be right, “says Eton headmaster Simon Henderson in a joint statement with the partner in the project Sir Mufti Hamid Patel, of the Star Academies trust.    

Eton awoken to equality?

In the words of Eton old boy Boris Johnson, it is an attempt at:”levelling up.”

It all sounds laudable, but what is the other side of the coin? Why has Eton awoken to equality after six centuries?

The cynics could argue the £3 million investment could yield a tax write off for a school that has nearly £600 million in investments alone. There are private equity companies that dream of such funds.

Labour to tax private schools?

Politics may also play a role. With a Labour government waiting in the wings and threatening to tax private schools, voluntary contributions like this may help soften the blow.

Lets have more millions for education of the people.

It would also be prudent for Eton to show it was prepared to redistribute its own wealth. A chance to show that it is not merely an exclusive school for the out–of–touch elite, but an establishment that cares.

Better still, the Department of Education needs to plough many more millions into building good schools in the north.

This could give bright pupils a better chance and don’t need help from elite private schools – or anyone, for that matter.