School vouchers plan to overcome elitism in jobs
Your support helps us to tell the story
Our mission is to deliver unbiased, fact-based reporting that holds power to account and exposes the truth.
Whether $5 or $50, every contribution counts.
Support us to deliver journalism without an agenda.
Louise Thomas
Editor
Parents with children at persistently failing schools may be given vouchers to enable them to buy a better education elsewhere.
A government-commissioned report said yesterday that increasing elitism in recruitment to the professions needed to be tackled as early as primary school. It found that more than half of senior posts in business, law, medicine and the media were still taken by candidates who went to independent schools, and increasing numbers of wealthy children were landing the most sought-after jobs.
The report, by a cross-party panel chaired by the former cabinet minister Alan Milburn, demanded urgent action to break a "closed shop mentality" in the professions. It said parents at poor schools should be given vouchers to enable their children to go to a better school. This would help people from disadvantaged backgrounds break into the professions, the report argued.
It also said children as young as nine should start receiving careers advice. The report suggested ways of opening universities to a wider social spectrum and called for the professions to provide fuller details of their recruitment policies.
Subscribe to Independent Premium to bookmark this article
Want to bookmark your favourite articles and stories to read or reference later? Start your Independent Premium subscription today.
Join our commenting forum
Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies
Comments