many reasons for disagreements around independent schools, the most obvious being, inevitably, high costs of education. They depend on whether the schools are educating younger or older children, whether they are day or boarding, and, sometimes, on geographical area. The average basic fee is from £1,500 to £6,000 but Eton for example charges almost £12,000. Still, this is just a part of the overall expenditure, with extras like instrumental tuition or school trips, and costs of books, entries for public examinations, stationery, medical supplies, and uniforms adding to the total price. To send two children to a public school (and not one of the top rank) would absorb the whole of a senior teacher's earnings. No wonder that attendance at a public school is in practice reserved almost exclusively for the children of the relatively rich, including now more and more from abroad.
             Many schools offer scholarships but this is not of that much help, due to their quite exceptional and exclusive character. Many schools have bursaries – grants from the school – to help to pay the fees. These are often awarded after a 'means test' of family income. Some schools, on the other hand, offer grants to children of clergy, teachers, and those of armed forces – not a very democratic idea indeed. Help to children of former pupils, single-parent families, and orphans or concessions for brothers or sisters is sometimes available, too. Nevertheless, even the Independent Schools Council (ISC) admits they rarely cover the whole fee. But schools tend to create the picture of being more socially inclusive. This may be a result of a national debate over the ways in which independent schools could be incorporated into the state system, taking place in recent years. This way Eton prides itself to have about 135 scholarship boys (of the total 1300) and about 25 boys (2%) educated free of charge. The numbers are very significant as they show that even though ...