Number of private pupils at record level

London: Almost 40,000 more children are now being educated in private schools than when Tony Blair came to power.

Figures from the Independent Schools Council show its member schools were teaching 509,093 pupils - the highest number ever recorded. One in seven children in London is now educated privately.

The numbers are likely to cause concern for the government. Although education spending has risen by two-thirds in real terms since 1997, increasing numbers of parents appear willing to spend as much as £25,000 (Dh182,673) a year to go private.

The rise comes despite a decline in the number of children of school age and a 5.9 per cent increase in average private school fees in the past year. It was suggested the schools had become substitute families for children who rarely see their hard-working parents.