Private or state school?

That is a question that never really came up in my mind before. There happened to be a private school in my hometown but its reputation was not the best actually and until grade 7 I also did not know anyone who went there. Then at the beginning of grade 7 one new girl came to our class from private school and everyone was impressed by how much she knew. On the second thought she obviously disliked something there or else she would not have switched schools.

It seems that in New Zealand private schools are a much bigger topic than in Germany. According to NZ Herald about 3.5% of all students go to private schools. This is literally nothing compared to Australia, where nearly 40% visite a private school.

But the question is apparent anyway – are private schools better than state schools?

There are some factors such as smaller classes, more modern facilities, etc. through which private schools seem rather attractive.

But do these things really change the amount of knowledge you can get in school? In the end it all comes down to the attitude one has towards learning I think. Either you want to learn something and this is perfectly possible in a class with 5 students more too. Or you aren’t really interested in what happens in class. A modern classroom won’t change anything about this fact though.

Though the advantage of a private school might be that you have wider options on how and what you want to learn. So if you are a really ambitious student then surely a private school might be worth its money.

I guess this is something everyone thinks about a bit differently, so this was just me stating my opinion.

There is also a really detailed article on the NZ Herald concerning this topic (I also got my figures there), if anyone is interested in reading a couple of other opinions I can recommend you this article:

• http://m.nzherald.co.nz/lifestyle/news/article.cfm?c_id=6&objectid=11576894