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Japanese Tourist Fined for Defying Sky Lantern Ban in Chiang Mai
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Looming Crisis: Private Schools Face Closures Amid VAT Hike
The majority of the public support lots of things, such as reinstatement of capital punishment. But that that's never happening. Its been posted before, but it is an outdated stereotype to paint parents of children as being those seeking advantage over others. A significant portion of pupils are boarding pupiles. There are state boarding schools, but these are very small in number (about 30 our of the total of 500 boarding schools) The proportion of pupils that are international is quite small; about 25,000 our of the 600,000-odd. There are in total, 66,000 children boarding in the UK. Mostly the reasons for boarding are because the parents are not in the UK. Parents who are working overseas are working hard to provide for their children. But where they are working does not provide suitable education for their children, so the parents have either to give up work, and return to the UK as unemployed, or pay fees. They are not seeking advantage. The vast majority of children are sent to independant schools not to seek advantage, but to avoid disadvantage. Lets be clear; the Department of Education's budget is massive, at £115 billion per year. The VAT take will, at best, increase spending by 1%' thats less than the rate of inflation. The UK's spending on Education, per child, is 6th in the OECD. But clearly the money is poorly spent, and most of it is seemingly whittled away on things that are not related to the education of children. This was part of the argument of Free Schools; that the private sector can manage the running of schools more effectively. In fact, in the Netherlands, over 70% of schools are managed by Private Education boards. Which means they are privately owned, and receive 100% government subsidy. In most countries, private education is subsidised. The UK government has put on hold, indefinetely, all applications for Free Schools, including Eton Colleges's proposal to open 3 state 6th Form colleges in the North East. The decision is perverse. A large number of parents send their children becsause of SEND, and in many cases, receive local authority finding. LAs are obliged by law, to provide school places for all children. These SEND children cannot be educated in the state sector, as the state sector either can't provide the specialist teachers, or is structurally incapable (the state sector will never be able to provide classes of less than 7 pupils per teacher). Independant schools have seen an increase in enrollment in recent years, as the state sector, for some years (but not all) have seen a decline in enrollments. Since 2008, the general picture of the UK is not a country with an ever increasing wealthy population, but a country that is in economic decline, a decline that was not reversed by Brexit, and an economy that is fragile to shocks like COVID-19. I will post this again: https://medium.com/@diarmid.mackenzie/diversity-across-uk-independent-schools-a015a006f41b So agian, lets explain this. About 50% of pupils come from households with the top 10% of incomes. That includes the super wealthy. The median earnings of that top 10% are £72,000. https://www.statista.com/statistics/416102/average-annual-gross-pay-percentiles-united-kingdom/ That includes a lot of people that you could describe as comfortable, but not well off. That would include a household with two earners on £35,000 per annum each. which is less than the median income for a professional. A salary of £35,000 would mean you would fail to qualify for an immigration visa based on job. 25% of kids come from households in the bottom 70%; so median income less than £47,000. How do all these parents afford an average of £18,000 per year. With great difficulty and sadness it seems. About 18% of school children, or 1.8 million, require special educational needs. There is a huge variation in those needs. About 400,000 have Education, Health, and Care (EHC) plans, which takes care of about 6% of that pie chart. For the other 43%, how does one find a spare 1.7*18,000 (average number of kids). Some will win a full bursary or a part scholarship. The number on full bursaries is uncertain, but the ISC, whuch represents about 80% of independent schools, says about £440 million is given out, with the average value being £9000. I'm going to estimate that its about 10-15% of pupils receive financial assistance. I can give the example of my sister. She is a single mum and a science teacher in a inner city state school in the English Midlands. After 25 years in the profession, her salary before deductions is about £50,000. She is a single mum, and has been repeatedly assaulted in the schools in which she has taught. Two of her pupils have been stabbed. In the summer holidays, she takes on a marking job, which pays about £1500. The father is also a teacher, with two other children. They both agree that their son should attend an independent school, to avoid being stabbed, to avoid bullying because he is of mixed race parentage. They both contribute to the fees. She hasn't taken a holiday in 15 years. In addition, our widowed mother, on a half army pension and short NHS pension, contributes. The decision was taken 13 years ago to school him in an independent school, My parents were also motivated because when my sster was much younger, she suffered a psychotic episode at university. My mother is a retired psychiatric nurse, and knows people with psychotic illnesses are never really cured; like cancer, its in remission, and can come back. The patient never fo.rgets, and those memories can be frightening. They were frightening for me when I took the broken glass from my sisters hands. The school chosen has excellent pastoral care, and my parents recognised that their age meant they will probably not live to see him reach adulthood. A school like that can provide excellent continuity during times of stress. Back then, it was doable. The numbers added up. Inflation in recent years, affecting us all, has made that difficult. This VAT raid is breaking the back of the camel. He is year 9, about to embark on his GCSEs, based on the topics he most enjoys and most excels at. The council have said there are zero places for him in the County, and that he will have to go to a neighbouring county. He has been informed that he will have to drop at least half of his favoured subjects, and also will be automatically put in a bottom set, not becquse of his own attainment (he is scholistically, in the top 15% of his class), but because all mi-year transfers are put in the bottom set. There is no choice, but to keep him in the school for at least the next 2.5 years. Thousands of other parents will be facing similar choices, and the government will interpret their inaction as meaning they had the money, while crassly forgetting, that changinga school is not the same as switch car insurance or broadband provider. The government claims the ends justify the means. Thats its better to benefit the 93%, portraying it as Sopies choice. They acknowledge that 7% of children will be harmed, but thats ok because 93% will benefit. But they won't/ The VAT take, over the years, will not increase. It will decline. The government estimates that by 2029, this will result in 6500 extra teachers being recruited. Maybe, but does that turn state education around. Of course not. And how do they retain those extra 6500, and give them and their colleagues payrises etc. Demand for private schools right now might be pricing inelastic for many, because parents have really no choice. Decisions are taken at natural education breakpoints; the decision at nursery to primary, the decision at primary to secondary, and the decision at 6th form. Increased costs will mean less parents will choose the private school option, which is what the government wants. But this decline will accelerate after about 2029, once the present cohort of children in secondary school have worked through the system. That £1.8 billion the government hopes to get by 2029 is a peak take. They will need £1.8 billion and the rest in 2030, 2031, 2032 etc. So where do they get this money from? They assume the spare 1.7*18,000 per person sloshing around will be spent in the economy. A bit might be, eg home improvements. But the money might be used to buy a nicer house, sparking more house price increases, which goes against the government's housing pledge. The money from the grandparents will end up being sucked into £1500 a week social care fees, paid to companies that are mostly offshored in tax havens. People might spend it on foreign holidays, maybe a new German made car. Much of that money will leave the UK, continuing the decline of the UK. Currently, 80% of fees goes into teacher salaries, and they spend money like the rest of us. The older schools have substantial investments, and so money will go into institutional stocks (our pensions), Here's a thought. Its widely reported that the EU bans tax on education. What this means is a member state can be substantially fined if it does tax education. This tax policy affects schools in Northern Ireland, with money going to the Treasury. But the DoE cannot spend that money in Northern Ireland, because Education is devolved to the Northern Ireland assembly because of the Good Friday Agreement. The GFA utterly transformed the constitutional landscape of the UK, and is the main cause for Brexit being difficult to implement, because Brexit results in discrimination. And eliminating discrimination was the heart of the Troubles and the GFA. In Northern Ireland, it has been common for children to be schooled across the border. Kids come North, kids go South. Education and healthcare is something that partitiion only partially disrupted. As a result the NHS in NI and the Irish Healthcare service have arrangements regarding accessing specialists, because the best hospitals are still in Belfast and Dublin. Similarly, Queens in Belfast is still seen as the best university in Ireland, with the result that the majority of students are from the Republic. VAT on education now introduces discrimination. The Directive means its a right in the EU for citizens not to be taxed on education, But now this policy means Irish citizens in Northern Ireland (basically the entire population) are now discriminated against and treated differently to Irish citizens in Ireland. And are children with entitlement to Irish citizenship, boarding in the North, but parents in England, also discriminated against? Even if the courts rule against this, it will instantly render all of the private schools in the North as non-viable. Why would a parent send their kid to a private school in Armagh when they could go to a private school in Monahagn tax free, and receive identical education from identical teachers in an identical language? In Ireland, of course private schools are not taxed, and never will be, and the government there is adamant they will never receive state subsidy. However, the Irish government offers tax relief on school fees for any executive transferring to Ireland with a Multinational...... I can forsee booming times for Irish private education, maybe even wealthy English schools setting up campuses there. Probably quicker to fly to Dublin from London that it is Aberdeen.... -
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Where to travel out of country for 2 days?
Siem reap / angkor wat if you like temples and historic buildings -
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Buying a Dog
And you sound like you would be the worst possible owner imaginable .... get a hamster and call it Terminator ... -
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Knee pain. Where to go in Chonburi?
Phyathai Sri Racha should be fine gor this. You can expect a physical examination and probably Xray . Depending on what these show additional imaging might or might be needed. -
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Does your Thai wife or girlfriend ever foot the bill?
Mine always pays! But with my money.! -
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30 Did-You-Know Questions for those 'on the fence' about the mRNA jabs
Good response Sir. Could I finish the last sentence for you differently? ''Without the above vaccines'' - humans would be much healthier.
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