The training secretary has acknowledged he sends his youngsters to non-public faculties – however steered his spouse was behind the choice.
Nadhim Zahawi, who’s accountable for state faculties throughout England, was requested why he – like Boris Johnson – selected to pay to ship his three youngsters to impartial faculties as a substitute.
The query got here as Mr Zahawi hailed non-public faculties as a device to assist “stage up” the nation and criticised universities that admit state pupils with decrease A-level grades.
After saying the nation has “sensible state faculties and so they’re getting higher day-after-day”, he was requested: “You continue to despatched your youngsters to non-public college although?”
“That was a parental resolution, I needed to make that with my spouse. I don’t make that alone,” the 54-year-old Mr Zahawi advised Sky Information.
It was put to him {that a} main research of 132,000 college students had discovered these from state faculties with barely decrease grades than their non-public college friends usually tend to obtain a high diploma.
However Mr Zahawi attacked “tilting the system”, arguing: “You don’t stage up by dragging folks down,” pointing to state academies being run by the likes of Eton.
He added: “You don’t succeed by delivering a fantastic consequence for each baby by really attacking part of the system. I don’t need to assault impartial faculties – they do a fantastic job.”
The Iraq-born Mr Zahawi is one the cupboard’s richest members, boasting a £10m property portfolio having made his fortune co-founding the polling organisation YouGov.
When the Conservatives got here to energy in 2010, spending in state and personal faculties was about the identical – however an enormous hole has grown since, as spending in state faculties was squeezed.
Mr Zahawi, who was educated in each sectors, additionally recalled being racially abused and dunked head down in a pond by bullies throughout his personal college days.
He spoke as he described the case of 11-year-old Raheem Bailey – who needed to have a finger amputated whereas fleeing college bullies – as “sickening”.
I suffered bullying once I first arrived on these shores,” Mr Zahawi recounted, including: “I couldn’t converse English and it was laborious.
“I keep in mind my first expertise, being chased across the park as a kind of leisure for larger boys and them throwing me within the pond, or dunking my head down within the pond, fairly horrific for a kid who has simply arrived on these shores.”
Requested if there was a racist aspect to the bullying, the training secretary replied: “I don’t know, it was a very long time in the past, however I’ve definitely been on the receiving finish of different racist slurs.”
Kaynak: briturkish.com
