Dr Anthony Seldon is the headmaster of the £25,620-a-year Wellington College, Berkshire, UK, at which 32 per cent of pupils achieved straight As in their A-levels in 2007. Wellington Collage is helping to set up a state school in East Wiltshire, which opened in 2009. The Wellington-Academy replaces Castledown Foundation School in Ludgershall, and will be open to students from all backgrounds (see: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-508217/Private-schools-fuel-social-apartheid-says-headmaster-25-620-year-Wellington-College.html#ixzz13ifCaCT3 ).
Dr Anthony Seldon slams Educational Apartheid in the UK and offers a solution (2008): “[independent schools were] detached from the mainstream national education system, thereby perpetuating the apartheid which has so dogged education and national life in Britain since the Second World War…It isn't right any longer for our schools to cream off the best pupils, the best teachers, the best facilities, the best results and the best university places. If you throw in the 166 state grammar schools, which are predominantly middle class and private schools in all but name, the stranglehold is almost total… Independent schools defend themselves by pointing to the number of bursaries they offer to those of lesser means, and many children from non-privileged backgrounds are indeed given a leg-up. But they also pluck children out of their social milieu as well as taking them away from their state schools, depriving those schools of their best academics, musicians, sportsmen and women, and future stars… I believe that every single independent school should either be founding an academy or taking part in a trust or federation. It is no longer tenable in 2008 to retain 20th century apartheid thinking." [1].
[1]. Dr Anthony Seldon, quoted by Laura Clark, “Private schools fuel our social apartheid”, says headmaster of £25,620-a-year Wellington College”, Daily Mail on-line, 15 January 2008: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-508217/Private-schools-fuel-social-apartheid-says-headmaster-25-620-year-Wellington-College.html .