- "It would be refreshing if society and our legal
system concentrated more on the duties of parents to their children rather
than their rights to self-gratification no matter what the cost to others."
-
-
- Independent schools launched swingeing attacks yesterday
on the "self-indulgence" of divorced parents and the "arrogance"
of the world's major religions.
-
- The tone was set by Graham Able, the Master of Dulwich
College, in his chairman's address to the annual meeting of the Headmasters'
and Headmistresses' Conference, a grouping of 240 schools many of which
have been accused of "ripping off" parents by colluding over
fees.
-
- He said that the children of parents who divorced in
pursuit of "self-gratification" were far more likely than those
who grew up under the same roof as their mother and father to require pastoral
care at school to improve their work, behaviour and relations with others.
-
- "The need for high quality pastoral care has, sadly,
never been more crucial than it is today and, unless society can start
to reverse selfish and self-indulgent attitudes, this trend will continue."
-
- Mr Able said that the problem of absent fathers could
be particularly difficult for adolescent boys. "It would be refreshing
if society and our legal system concentrated more on the duties of parents
to their children rather than their rights to self-gratification no matter
what the cost to others."
-
- He said it might not be long before independent schools
could no longer cope with the pastoral needs of the growing number of children
of divorced parents. That was why he was "firing a warning shot".
-
- Mr Able condemned calls for the legalisation of "so-called
soft drugs", which could lead to an increase in teenage suicide.
-
- He spoke also of the difficulty of promoting young people's
spiritual development "in a world where some so-called religious leaders
promote hatred and even violence, several Roman Catholic priests have been
found guilty of child abuse and the Anglican Church faces a possible schism
over the sexual preferences of its bishops".
-
- If asked to give a report on the state of the major monotheistic
world religions, he would have to conclude that it was time they did more
to reduce their levels of "ignorance, dogma and arrogance".
-
- Mr Able announced that the independent sector would in
future make it as difficult as possible for newspapers to compile the exam-based
league tables that enabled parents to compare schools.
-
- He said that, in an effort to manipulate the tables and
improve their school's position, some heads had been barring some "quite
reasonable" candidates from the sixth form and restricting the subjects
others could take.
-
- From next summer, independent school results would no
longer be published centrally, as they had for 11 years. Instead, schools
would be free to decide whether to post their results on their websites,
so relieving heads of "enormous pressures".
-
- Setting out the independent sector's conditions for continuing
to take part in the national education system, Mr Able called for "stripped
down" GCSEs; three years to study AS and A-levels instead of two;
A-levels that would once again identify the brightest candidates; a separate
vocational system; and a later start to the university year so that applicants
would not apply until after they had received their results.
-
- He said: "The most important thing is significantly
to reduce the examination burden on our students."
-
- GCSEs should be reduced to external exams in English
and maths; all other subjects should be assessed internally; and the "ridiculous
and time-consuming burden of coursework", which was open to cheating,
should be scrapped. That would give pupils two years to study six or seven
AS-levels and one year to take three A-levels, reconciling the "holy
grails of depth and breadth".
-
- Vocational courses should be made more practical instead
of seeking to acquire status by copying their academic equivalents.
-
- Mr Able said he hoped that the Government-appointed Tomlinson
committee that was examining education for pupils aged 14 to 19 would produce
a challenging and flexible curriculum that allowed most independent schools
to stay in the mainstream.
-
- If not, "we will have to consider the alternatives".
-
- That would almost certainly mean more schools abandoning
A-levels and adopting the international baccalaureate.
-
- Sir Peter Lampl, the millionaire philanthropist, said
that independent schools were not doing enough to justify their moral right
to charitable status.
-
- He urged them to do more to help pupils in the state
sector.
-
- © Copyright of Telegraph Group Limited 2003.
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