The Royal Shakespeare Company (RSC) has been accused of discrimination after it emerged that private school pupils are charged significantly more than state schoolchildren for theatre visits. Groups from state schools pay £10 per head, while private school groups are charged £16.50 — a difference of 65 per cent.
The National Theatre in London operates a similar two-tier pricing structure, charging private school pupils £12 compared to £10 for state schoolchildren. Campaign group Education not Taxation (ENT), which represents private school parents, has called on the Charity Commission to investigate, claiming the policy 'feeds into a national class war'.
An ENT spokesman said: 'Raising the prices for independent school children feeds into a national class war and can deny children access to rites of passage we should all encourage, such as watching Shakespeare plays.' The group argues that the pricing overlooks the diversity within both sectors, including wealthy state schools and less affluent independent schools.
Richard Jones, head of Dorset's Bryanston School, described the premium as 'discrimination', adding: 'The arts are meant to unite audiences, not divide children through where they go to school.' The RSC defended its pricing, stating that 'prices for private schools are at a slightly higher rate due to the differences in budgets that are available between state-maintained schools and schools in the independent sector'.
The controversy follows a separate revelation that the Big Bang Programme, a national engineering competition run by Engineering UK, barred private schools from participating just two years ago. Engineering UK said it did not consider private schoolchildren among the 'under-represented groups in engineering' it aimed to inspire.
