New law 'will force private schools to be more elitist'

Frank Gerstenberg, former principal of Scotland’s biggest independent school, George Watson’s College in Edinburgh, said an end to charitable status would drive up fees and threaten bursaries, preventing some children from less privileged backgrounds from going to private schools.

He also claimed some MSPs were motivated by "politics" rather than economic or educational considerations in driving through changes to the charitable status of private schools.

Mr Gerstenberg’s comments represent the first major skirmish in what will become one of the most contentious issues in the Executive’s reform of the charities’ law.

The Executive’s Charities and Trustee Investment Bill is currently going through the parliament. One of its provisions would introduce a new and much tighter definition of charity. At the moment, private schools are registered as charities and enjoy charitable status, giving them tax benefits, the most lucrative of which is local authority rates relief.

The new definition of charity would require all charities to provide a "public benefit", and MSPs on the communities committee, which is considering the bill, believe this would rule out most, if not all, the private schools in Scotland.

Private schools estimate that they will have to put up their fees by between five and eight per cent if they lose charitable status. For those with children at George Watson’s College, this could mean an extra 400 to 500 a year. Parents of Fettes pupils could be asked to find an extra 1,000 or more every year to keep their children at school.

There is a fear in the independent school sector that this extra hike, on top of the usual annual rise, is likely to be too much for some parents.

Mr Gerstenberg, who retired as Watson’s principal in 2001 after 16 years in charge, said making schools more exclusive would be "one of the effects" of losing charitable status.

He said: "Most schools have done an exercise on it and found they will have to put up their fees by up to five per cent. It can certainly make it more difficult for parents - they would have to make more sacrifices, or decide not to go for private education."

Mr Gerstenberg said this would be compounded by the expected loss of some bursaries and scholarships which schools provide to help those from less privileged backgrounds.

Mr Gerstenberg said: "George Watson’s has 120 pupils financed out of its own resources. Schools would be much less able to provide this assistance if this [change to the law] went through. Many of those who are pushing this are politically-driven rather than educationally or economically-driven."

A combination of MSPs from Labour, the Liberal Democrats and the SNP are pushing for the change.

Ministers have insisted that they are not changing the law to attack private schools, merely reforming charity law.

An Executive spokesman pointed out the final decision on whether schools qualified as charities would rest with the charities’ regulator, who would decide whether or not to assign charitable status under the terms of the Bill.