Who could be surprised?

'Private schools drive up standards for all pupils – including those in state education, an international study claims.
Competition between private and state schools raises attainment across the entire education system over the ‘very long term’, according to a huge study of examination results since 1900 in 29 countries.

Britain’s mediocre standing in global league tables could be improved if more than the current 6 per cent of pupils were privately educated, it suggests.

A 10 per cent rise in private school pupils advances 15-year-olds’ test results by half a year’s worth of learning in maths, and a fifth of a year’s worth in science and reading.
It also reduces a nation’s spending on education by 5 per cent on average, it was claimed in the study, published today in the Economic Journal.

‘School systems are more efficient if they are more competitive,’ said Harvard University’s Professor Martin West, who co-wrote the study.'

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1312076/Ethnic-pupils-class-16-overtake-white-Britons-time.html#ixzz0zZVVaaOj