Kids of rich brits get top jobs

British children born of poorer families are missing out on the country’s top jobs because they continue to be let down by a moribund state education system.

The findings are the result of a cross party report chaired by former government minister Alan Milburn.

The “Fair Access to the Professions” paper claims that “birth not worth” had become a greater factor in determining someone’s chances in life.
Milburn said:

“ We want the brightest and the best to be at the top of every profession, that’s what everybody wants in the country. And it should be on the basis of what you know and not who you know. But all too often the bright kids from middle income and low income backgrounds are missing out because they haven’t got the right connections, they haven’t been to the right school, and they haven’t had the opportunity to go to the university”

The stark reality is that 50 percent of the top jobs in Britain go to former pupils of fee-paying schools even though they account for just 7 percent of all school pupils.

The report went on to add that the country will miss out on the next wave of social mobility, expected in the next decade, if the “educational attainment gap” remains as it.

Copyright © 2009 euronews

tags: education, United Kingdom