The Chief Executive of the Independent School Council (ISC) has responded to media stories about independent schools being forced to become state academies as being pure speculation based on a false premise − that independent schools will be forced to close due to the recession or alternatively becoming state academies. ISC has yet to see firm evidence that schools are in serious financial trouble as some of the media claims. It is now conducting a survey which will provide concrete evidence of developments in independent school student numbers and results will be published in April.
In the last recessions, independent school student numbers declined for a couple of years. But if this is happening now, independent school financial arrangements should not necessarily mean merger, closure or transformation into state academes, as some of the more lurid media reports suggest. However it is possible that non-ISC independent schools could be more vulnerable to a recession than ISC schools.