IN your editorial you rightly state that "educational background is one of the most important drivers of social mobility" ("Politicians should reflect true breadth of society", The Herald, April 7).
However, we would argue that assumptions about the ethnic, religious, social and economic background of Scottish independent school pupils are no longer pertinent.
The Scottish Charity Regulator has just come to the end of the most intensive test of public benefit of any sector of education in the English-speaking world. That test, and the means-tested financial support that resulted, was the direct result of policy making at Holyrood. Sadly, despite such an intensive programme of widening access, there has been no subsequent reflection by commentators or policy makers on the changes that it may have made.
Assumptions about the individual characteristics of pupils in Scotland's schools need to catch up with the work that those schools have undertaken. When the facts change, established opinions should at least be challenged.
John Edward,
Director, Scottish Council of Independent Schools,
61 Dublin Street,
Edinburgh.
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