“Unscrupulous parents for wanting choice”

Earlier in my blog I told the story of Mrs Patel who wanted to get her son into a good school. At the time she was living with her mother and put down her mother’s address, which was in the catchment area for the ‘good’ school in Harrow where Mr Patel wanted her child to attend. Mrs Patel moved back to her husband after 4 weeks, only 2 miles down the road from Pinner school. However too far away for little son to be able to attend. Therefore Harrow council were to take Mrs Patel to court for trying to ‘cheat’ in their view to get the school of her choice. The case has been dropped as it was not clear whether this was a case of fraud.

Now Ed Balls has asked for a review to take place to see just how many ‘unscrupulous’ parents there are, who are trying to ‘cheat’ the system. I was appalled by the word ‘unscrupulous’. I looked it up – devious, ruthless – were just a couple of the words I came up with. Well, the problem is not with parents, who want a choice and the best school for their child, but the system. Because there isn’t the choice. Mrs Patel has grasped what has to be done. She chose to send her child to a private school. However, why hasn’t the money that she is saving the state school system now being transferred to the private sector to follow her son? This is very upsetting to me. If I wanted my child to attend the best school in the area then maybe I would be ruthless and fight tooth and nail for his or her place.