Private or Public education

An article by the Sydney Morning Herald, "Doing the sums - does a private

education add up?" discusses whether parents are getting value for money at

private schools, or if their children would be just as successful and well-rounded at

a much more affordable government school. When parent's consider this choice,

they will often consider a broad number of factors such as the school's location,

accessibility to resources and funding, and of course its recognition as a producer

of high achieving HSC results. The article also considers a fairly controversial topic

on the social environment of a school, whereby parents are considering school

selection by the presence of racial mix. Essentially it is a combination of all these

factors, but it may be debated whether or not it is actually worth paying up to

$30,000 a year at a private school, as opposed to under $1000 at almost every

public school. However, if private schools are giving students an edge in life, then it

must be considered if this is truly an equitable system, as this would simply allow for

a form of social reproduction, where people of higher socio-economic status are

given an even further advantage in life.

Whilst private schools have the benefit of better resources, higher quality teachers

and a further diverse range of extra curricular activities for students, The Board of

Studies HSC results have demonstrated that 9 of the top 10 spots for overall

achievement were filled by selective public schools. However, the top 50 schools

were largely dominated by non-government schools (Better Education HSC School

Ranking, 2012). Therefore, public schools do have the potential to produce higher

results, but these are very specific towards selective schools. A contribution to these

more consistently high results by private schools may be a result of public schools

being rated as more inadequate in imposing discipline, a concern in larger class

sizes and less qualified teachers (Papadikis & Shapiro, 1992). In order to address

this issue, it is essential that an attempt must be made to improve teacher quality in

all public schools, as I believe that, although parents are paying more money for

private education, those students who are unable to make it into selective schools,

and whose families can't afford private education should still be given equal access

to the same level of quality education as those who are at private schools. 

Racial mix also appears to be a factor in secondary school choice. UTS university

lecturer Christina Ho (as mentioned in the SMH article) has found a clear pattern of

"cultural polarisation", whereby public schools are "increasingly viewed as ethnic

ghettos" and the fact that a growing number of Australian parents tend to view a

good schooling environment for their children as one where minority groups of the

out-of-school world are also the minority groups within schools. Therefore, many

private schools tend to be more 'white' dominated in many areas of Sydney, which

is evident through Ho's research on language background other than English

(LBOTE). Private schools such as Wenona in Sydney's North Shore only score 5%

in the LBOTE, whilst the public school around the corner, North Sydney Girl's

scored a much higher 93%. 

The difference between a public and private education may both have similar, yet

varying outcomes on their students, due to the varying nature of culture, location

and socio-economic status of the dominant groups found within the schools. It is

difficult to determine which option is 'better' for an individual, as it essentially comes

down to a matter of what a parent would like their child to take out of their

education. Although there is not one option which is necessarily better for a student,

I believe there should be equal levels of teacher quality within all schools, and

should be done so in order to increase levels of equity between different schools.

References

Better Education. (2012) Retrieved from the Better Education HSC School Ranking

web site: http://bettereducation.com.au/results/hsc.aspx

Papadikis, E. & Shapiro, P. (1992). Egoism versus altruism? Citizen preferences for

public education in Australia. Australian Journal of Political Science, 27(2), 326-334.

http://www.smh.com.au/lifestyle/doing-the-sums--does-a-private-education-addup-

20120327-1vw9g.html