Aussie schools a little too selective

For some the news that arrived in the post last month would have been good, perhaps even life-changing. Many more would have disappointed. Each July across New South Wales the state’s selective high schools notify students who were successful in their applications and those who failed to make the grade. This year, a record 14,458 year 6 students sat the test, competing for 4226 places across 19 fully selective and 29 partially selective schools.

As Fairfax Media has reported, a new discussion paper has found that securing a spot in one of these schools requires such investment of time and money that almost three-quarters of their students come from the highest quarter of socioeducational advantage. Only 2 per cent come from the lowest. As a result, student bodies at selective schools, which were originally designed to provide environments of academic excellence to public school students, are now typically more advantaged than those of private schools.

The paper, Institutionalised Separation, argues that rather than promoting inclusion and equity, the selective school system was ‘‘increasingly putting socio-educationally advantaged students in a ‘class of their own’ ’’.

The NSW Government is reviewing the selection process. It needs to consider the benefits of the selective system not only to its students, but to all the students the state has the duty to educate.