If my Nu-K party (See below) were ever elected, this is one of the things I would change.
My son is a dual national holding a full Japanese and a full British passport. He is now studying full time at university in England. But... I have to pay full international school fees for him. Instead of around 3,000 pounds a year, I have to pay 16,800 currently with raises every year.
When I checked with the ministry of education I found out that it is not based on Nationality, but on whether anyone in my immediate family has paid tax for 3 years previously. Having been an expat since 1986 the answer was no. But I have paid 12 years of taxes previously to UK treasury.
To add insult to injury, when I forced a response to the following hypothetical situation, I was amazed at the response.
" If a Korean family of 5 (arbitrary number) goes to U.K. since the Father's company need him to work in UK on a 3 year secondment. If after 3 years his head office require him to return to Korea but his eldest son is University age and wants to study in UK, what fees will he pay?"
The answer was 3,000 pounds the domestic rate. And yet the son doesn't even have a claim to citizenship, let alone a full passport.
Further to that, in my son's last year in Japan at high school he visited Hungary and Austria for a school choir trip. Being a parent it was my duty to ask about passports and visas etc. I was told by the Austrian Embassy in Japan that either passport was good to travel. At that time I also asked them that if my son wanted to study at the prestigious Mozart Academy, and assuming he passed the audition, what other requirements would there be. I was told that he would require at least 1 year of high school German language. Which is fine and understood. When I asked about fees I was told that since he has a full UK passport and UK is part of the European Union, he would pay domestic European fees, which at the time converted to approximately 2,700 pounds per year.
No wonder the UK is in such a mess.
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