Fighting for Equity in Education
//This is a summary of a new paper by Professor Alan Reid published by the Australian Government Primary Principals’ Association. The full paper is available on the AGPPA website Continue reading “Building Our Nation Through Public Education”
//A new OECD report provides some interesting perspective on the debate over immigration in Europe and the Paris terrorist attacks. It shows a sharp contrast between the integration of immigrant children in schools in France and Belgium compared to Australia. Immigrant children in France and Belgium are the most alienated in the OECD, indicating a failure of integration, whereas far fewer immigrant children in Australia are alienated from school.
Continue reading “Integrating Immigrant Children in School is an Australian Success Story”//A Melbourne school principal responds to the school student from an elite private school who made derogatory slurs against students from public schools on social media.
If that icon of Australian satire, Barry Humphries was running around stage bagging the public school system, dressed up as an over-privileged private school student, we would all laugh. Some might even squirm at the closeness of the home-truth, but we would leave the theatre our need for humour satiated.
Today though, Barry Humphries was nowhere in sight. Rather it was the work of a Xavier College VCE student, on Facebook, with the immediate chorus of support from hundreds of online admirers. Continue reading “The Price of Privilege”
//Earlier this week, The Age revealed that parents were asked to pay $270 to enrol their children at a public high school in Melbourne. The Age also reported that another school is charging for sex education classes. Such fees are inexcusable, unethical and illegal in public schools.
Continue reading “Fees and Charges in Public Schools Under the Microscope”//Nearly 30 academic studies of public and private school outcomes in Australia have been published in the last 15 years. The first comprehensive review of these studies shows that the vast weight of evidence is that public schools achieve similar outcomes to private schools. The report has just been published by Save Our Schools. Continue reading “Studies Show Public Schools Achieve Similar Results to Private Schools”
//A Queensland University study has shown that there is no difference in test results between public, Catholic and Independent primary schools after taking account of student background factors that influence school results. Indeed, Catholic schools perform worse than public schools on some results. The study says that its findings are similar to those of overseas studies. Continue reading “Academic Study Shows that Private Primary Schools Perform no Better than Public Schools”
//A report by the Victorian Auditor-General has found that parents in public schools are being charged for items and activities that should be free under state legislation and policy. It says that parent payments no longer just support free instruction, but have become essential to its provision.
The report says that there has been a “fundamental failure” in the arrangements for parent payments. The Department of Education (DET) has failed to monitor and enforce compliance to its parent payment policy and there are no consequences for schools who do not comply. Parent payment requests are not sufficiently itemised by schools and consequently it is not clear to parents what they must pay for and what they can choose to pay. The report says there is a need for greater transparency in how parent payments are requested by schools. Continue reading “Parents Are Being Charged for ‘Free’ Education in Victoria”
//According to the Australian Scholarship Group, families face a total bill of nearly $500,000 to send their children to Independent private schools and over $200,000 for systemic religious schools compared to about $50,000-70,000 in a public school. This is a huge difference. Year 12 fees in the elite Independent schools are up to around $30,000 a year and more. Just what do parents get for this enormous outlay?
One thing for sure is that they do not get any better school results. Research published recently by Save Our Schools shows that student test results are no better in private schools than in public schools when like schools are compared. The common perception that private schools deliver better results than public schools is a complete myth.
Continue reading “What Do Parents Get for a Costly Private School Education?”
//A new analysis of school NAPLAN test results published by Save Our Schools shows that the results in public schools are just as good as those in private schools. SOS national convenor, Trevor Cobbold, said that the results show that public schools are a good choice for parents and they should not be beguiled by misleading private school marketing. Continue reading “Public Schools are the Equal of Private Schools”
//A new research paper from Save Our Schools shows that the often-presumed superior test results of private schools compared to public schools is a myth. Public, Catholic and Independent schools with a similar socio-economic composition (as measured by the Index of Community Socio-Educational Advantage or ICSEA) have very similar results in nearly all states. Continue reading “Public Schools Do Just as Well as Private Schools in NAPLAN”