When my son started school aged four a colleague asked me where I put his name down for high school. At that point I hadn’t and I didn’t know that I had to. She had me convinced that my child would miss out on something really big if I didn’t do so immediately.
So I ran around collecting forms, getting references and handing over application fees. We were applying to private schools as I am sure you don’t need a family reference to be accepted into the local high school.
My husband and I attended state high schools so we weren’t following an old boy/old girl tradition. We decided we would give our children the best education we could afford. As it turned out that education would be a very expensive private one.
When we started looking at schools for our sons, at the suggestion of my then colleague who had been privately educated, we were shocked by the facilities and resources of private schools. There were high-tech science labs, music rooms with the latest recording equipment and drama theatres. When you are in the state system you don’t know what you don’t have. You also don’t know how that might impact your chance for a university place or a job.
The HSC year for that same child was an eye-opener for me and absolutely vindicated our decision to put everything else on hold so our boys could be educated to a high standard. Not only did I finally learn that the students who are ranked at the bottom of the group can affect the results of the students at the top ( and vice versa) but I then witnessed young men help each other through it. Once the individual rankings were decided, post trial exams, the brightest students embraced the long tail in an effort to pull their results up. There were Facebook groups for subjects where students could have their practice essays critiqued by their peers. I am convinced it was how my son was motivated to study and eventually get into his preferred course.
I think back to my own experience and it was really every student for herself with limited knowledge of the the system works.
This is why the education system needs a serious revolution. All children should have access to a quality education and motivational learning environment. The playing field needs to start leveling so we should be asking what can be done to bring the other students up – like the top students at my son’s school tried to do for last year’s HSC exam. A quality education shouldn’t just be available for those who can afford it or for those fortunate enough to gain entry via the handful of scholarships that are given to the gifted students.
The removal of that clever group from the state system compounds the problem. If there is indeed a relationship between the overall performance of the cohort and an individual’s HSC score then children at non-selective government schools generally are in for an even worse time.
My experience supports one of the key findings from the The Gonski Report.
“There is a large performance gap between highest and lowest performing student.”
This refers to the gap between schools, not within. The government must find a way to address this and as a matter of urgency. In my experience it does have a lot to do with the difference in quality of education between the top private and the least resourced public schools. Resources are not just the buildings and tools, but also the quality and commitment of teaching staff. Clearly I am speaking generally here as there are some outstanding schools with wonderful teachers who have achieved brilliant results in the state system. But if most were like that then The Gonski Report would be redundant.
I didn’t want to roll the dice in the state system with my children so why should other parents have to? The preferred system would be if all children had access to the same great quality education and none of us had to pay more than we currently pay in taxes for that.
Do you agree? Is it more important to close the gap between best and worst or instead focus on how we compare with the education levels of other OECD countries?