"Searching for the Grand Paris"
"What are the issues surrounding the choice of schools in London?"
-Okay, shall I try and describe the competition for education in London?
I think it's one of the major issues that's developed in London.
There is an historical aspect to this, which I think is quite important,
that until maybe 40 years ago,
London was predominantly what one might term a working-class city
and it had an education system to match,
where the expectation was
that children would leave school at the age of 14 or 15
and go into predominantly manual work,
and therefore it had a schooling system that was built around that assumption.
Of course, what has happened over the last 40 years
has been a process of gentrification in London,
where London has become, I would argue, predominantly a middle-class city,
where there are huge expectations for the children of these new residents
to gain educational qualifications
in an increasingly competitive situation.
So, what we have is an infrastructure for education
that was essentially designed for one social group
in a city which is now occupied by another social group,
which is much more focused on gaining educational qualifications
for their children.
So, there is, if you like, a disconnect
between what we have and what people want.
Now, of course, the education system has changed
and it has changed very rapidly.
I think it is important to say that there was a period of time
when London's education system lagged that in the rest of the country.
Now, that is no longer true.
That is particularly, I think, due to the efforts
of the Labour government under Tony Blair,
which had a policy of the urban challenge,
which put huge resources into education in London
and, of course, it's a function of the new population
who are very supportive
of educational ambition for their children.
However, there is still this mismatch,
which means that there is tremendous competition
for schooling places in London
and there is tremendous competition to get children into the school,
which means that many parents will strategize
in order to have their children registered at an address
within that catchment area.
I should say that the catchment area is not a fixed entity.
It is a dynamic entity. It depends on demand.
So, if there is a lot of demand for the school,
then the catchment area gets smaller.
If there is less demand, if it's a less popular school,
or if the demographic is different
in the sense that there aren't many school-aged children,
then the catchment area gets larger, so it's a dynamic entity.
But essentially, particularly in areas of middle-class gentrification,
which were previously working-class areas,
the competition for what are perceived as good schools can be ferocious.
Actually, the unit of the neighborhood is now sometimes defined
by the catchment area of a particular primary
or maybe, at a larger area, a particular secondary school,
that has entered into the language of the definition of a neighborhood.
But I think, more generally in London,
I mean, neighborhoods are quite fluid,
quite culturally and socially defined entities,
but they are clearly now delimited
by access to, particularly, primary schools.
Over time, I think that changes because obviously,
what has been happening is that,
and if you take the example of Lauriston School in Hackney,
as parents were unable to get themselves into that school,
they would then look around
and they would colonize perhaps, if I can use the word,
what was regarded as the second-best school
and that would then become a desirable,
perhaps not quite so desirable as the previous school,
but that would then become seen as a desirable area.
Word-of-mouth would pass on that the school was changing,
that it was seen as an acceptable school, et cetera, et cetera.
But these things, these processes, take some time to emerge.
So I think, to answer your question,
I think this is occurring at quite a small level,
but you kind of get an agglomeration effect, as they come together.
I think what is something also important for me to say
is that the structure of education has been changing in Britain,
as you probably know.
It used to be the case that almost all schools
were run by the local authority, the local borough,
the municipality if you like, in French language.
What has been happening, really since 1988,
under both New Labour and the Conservatives,
and coalition governments,
is there has been an emphasis on educational change
and there is now a whole plethora of schools
and, to some extent, the more desirable schools
are ones that are less under local authority control.
Not necessarily because local authority control is bad,
but because both those administrations,
whether New Labour or whether Conservative,
have favored, for various reasons,
a process of taking schools' funding away from the local authorities
and giving it to the school.
"What are the differences between London and Paris?"
I think the representation of Paris and France
as basically being "dirigiste" is probably correct.
I realize they have been many changes,
but my sense is that in Paris, policy is still driven from on high,
whereas I think it has been the case in London,
that we have seen increasingly
a breakdown of the authority and power of the state,
both at central and local level, so we've had the development
of the academy schools that I've talked about
at both primary and secondary level.
Whereas my impression in France
is there are still five or six major lycées in Paris,
which are the ones that parents will scheme, game,
probably in not dissimilar ways to London,
to get their children into,
but it is still probably still much more results-driven
than driven by, crudely, money,
of being able to buy access to where you want to live.
I think the other important thing at this stage,
which I haven't said anything about, is private schooling.
You would have to fill in the correct information about Paris,
but I think the division
between public schooling and private schooling in Paris
is not the same as it is in London.
The best schools, if I can put it that way, in Paris,
are still within the state sector,
whereas in London, it is very different.
Something like 5% of children in the United Kingdom as a whole
are educated privately.
In London, I believe that figure approaches 20%.
And the private schools are the ones
that disproportionately send children to the top universities.
So again, these are ballpark figures,
if I tell you that 5% of children in the United Kingdom
are educated privately,
and then I tell you that something like 50% of the children
going to Oxford or Cambridge come from private schools,
I think you will see something,
that gives you some indication of the power of the private sector.
Again, I think there is a difference between Britain and France here
in that the fees for private schooling in Britain are very, very high,
whereas I think in France, they are not so high.
So, I think one of the differences between London and Paris
is perhaps over the devolution of power to the individual school in London,
I think the role of the private sector,
and thirdly, the role of the religious sector.
And, of course,
I think those are probably the three main areas of divergence.