SCHOOL CHOICE IN SYDNEY
The two above articles relate to current ideas and trends
about school choice in Sydney. I think there is a huge array of ideas at play
when parents discuss school choice, but the one thing we can all agree on is
that there is the idea that you can’t go wrong at a private school, and you
will always get a quality education from a private school, but it is only
rarely that a public school provides quality education.
How does this relate to culture and identity? I think that
in one sense, assumptions are being made about schools based on their students’
cultural representation. Ho (2011) shows that in Central Sydney, 63% of
students are from a LBOTE, whereas in Northern Sydney, Independent schools only
have 13% of students from LBOTE. She discusses the ‘white flight’ of parents
(especially wealthy ones) out of public schools and into independent schools.
My opinion is that culture here is at play, where non-white races are linked to
low SES communities and schools in Sydney, and almost completely white elite
schools dominate the ATAR ranking system. I am not suggesting that a person’s
race is the reason for academic success or failure. What I am suggesting is
that perceptions of race, and
stereotypical views of ‘risky kids’ or ‘risky communities’ come into play when
wealthy parents make school choices.
The other aspect of culture we can see here is that I
believe a certain culture is beginning to form, not in relation to race or
ethnic background, but in terms of social class and status. Racism is so openly
condemned and even illegal that no one would dare to publicly call themselves
racist. What is less questionable though, is being prejudiced based on class. I
think there is a certain culture which has formed and which continues to
develop around private schools and this is problematic. I have not seen it any
more well articulated as I saw in Ho's article, when she speaks about the
monoculturalistic elite private schools of Sydney and their practices of
fraternity (where generations of the same family enrol in the same school and
somehow have more of a right to attend that school than other wealthy
children). This culture, or belief system, teaches that private schools are the
only place you can get a 'real' or 'good' education, and this is extremely
problematic for public schools all around the nation- and really what concerns
me the most. Ho articulates this thought well by saying
“Governments need to adequately support public schools, to redress the
growing perception that they are the ‘inferior choice’, and to stem the tide
away from the public system. Without this revaluing of public education, public
schools risk being reduced to a “safety net system for the deeply disadvantaged”
(2011: 616).
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References:
Brown, C. (2013) ATARS- You may as well use Postcodes for University Admissions. Accessible at http://theconversation.com/atars-you-may-as-well-use-postcodes-for-university-admissions-19154
Ho, C. (2011) Respecting the Presence of Others: School Micropublics
and Everyday Multiculturalism. Journal of
Intercultural Studies 32(6): 603-619
Tovey, J. (2013) Public Primary School numbers up but it tends to get Private after that. Accessible at http://www.smh.com.au/national/education/public-primary-school-numbers-up-but-it-tends-to-get-private-after-that-20130823-2sh7r.html
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