Britain | Schools and careers

Posh professions

“Education should not be about wealth,” boomed Tony Blair in 1996. Two decades later, it still is. Private schools teach 7% of Britain’s pupils, but account for half the country’s senior civil servants, cabinet ministers and leading journalists. Seven in ten generals and judges went to independent schools, according to the Sutton Trust, a charity. In some jobs the proportion has even increased. A decade ago, half Britain’s senior doctors were privately educated; today the figure is 61%. The share has risen in the law, too. Even pop stars are more likely than average to have a posh education. And what of the fat cats leading FTSE firms and the plutocrats in Parliament? They, it turns out, are among the least privileged of the lot: only one in three went private.

This article appeared in the Britain section of the print edition under the headline "Posh professions"

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From the February 27th 2016 edition

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