Are state schools like child abuse?

And if some people don’t run, they shall still win prizes. That attitude is public policy today, under the slogan “promoting social mobility”.

Among the organisations which busy themselves in this social engineering programme is the Sutton Trust, an educational charity, which has just published a report complaining that the personal statements made by state school pupils in their applications for university entrance are inferior to those made by pupils from private schools.

The trust’s conclusion is that this is terribly unfair and something must be done about it.

The report says that one source of state school pupils’ disadvantage is that private pupils get a lot of help from their teachers when making their written applications, while those from state schools do not (we might ask: “Why not?”).

Moreover, the applicants from private schools often cite their work experience in highly regarded jobs in top law firms, leading City traders and five star hotels.

The youngsters from state schools may only boast that they have done low status Saturday jobs and other menial employment.

The report finds that state school pupils were three times more likely to commit writing errors or use “inappropriately informal language” in their applications.

Should we be shocked by the Sutton Trust’s report? Should we all sing in chorus: “Something must be done”?

I’m sure we should be shocked, and certainly something must be done – but I doubt whether this shock or what precisely should be done is the prescription of the Sutton Trust. There are faults and shortcomings here, but let us try to uncover what they are.

It is shocking that state school pupils applying for university – after 13 years of free, full-time education – are unable to write their applications in good English.

What were they being taught all those years and paid for by their parents’ taxes?

They were not adequately instructed in English grammar, spelling and how to compose a letter – for we have now suffered two generations of an educational orthodoxy which reckons these things don’t matter.

The appalling truth is that the disgracefully low standard of teaching English in state schools has effectually deprived our children of the basic intellectual competence necessary to making progress in life. State education is a species of child-abuse.

But even more pertinent is the question of why experience in lowly jobs, such as stacking shelves, should be thought inferior to the “posh” jobs in smart offices? If I were a member of a university entrance interviewing panel, I would be impressed to be told by an applicant that he had not lain in bed on a Saturday but got out and delivered newspapers or washed cars. That shows initiative, energy and determination – qualities which well equip a pupil for higher education.

When I draw attention to the iniquity and hypocrisy of social engineering, I get a shoal of angry letters saying: “It’s all right for you – born with a silver spoon in your mouth, but what about the underprivileged?”

Nice try, but it wasn’t so.

I was raised between the jail and the gas works and attended a state school. The first jobs I had were packing parcels of rayon linings and mopping the warehouse floor. That was before I progressed to the printing shop where my first job every morning was to clean the lavatories.

And gosh! – I could still compose a sentence or two in readable English.