Elite-selection schools belong back in the ’30s
Richard Teese:
THE principals of MacRobertson Girls’ School and Melbourne High School have mounted a remarkable defence of their schools as historical champions of meritocratic equity (“Select schools benefit all state students”, Opinion, 27/11). Not that that was the point they should have addressed. Which was why have more. But alas, how history deserts those unfaithful to it, who present only parts of it! These two schools continue to shelter under the 1932 Education Fees Act, which attacked public secondary education in this state, targeting the poor. After the war, the schools clung on to their elite-selection role, while being forced to broaden their school catchments and limit their impact on other high schools………
…….Our task is to create learning environments in every school that support the whole range of students, even if the program emphasis may well vary. Exporting students from one site to another in search of relative individual advantage is no solution. The international evidence supports Stephen Lamb’s argument (Opinion, 21/11) that segregation weakens opportunities for poorer students, while intensifying the advantages of better-off students. Of course, one group is not responsible for the other group. But a good school nourishes both, neither culling one nor creaming the other.
[Source: The Age]
The full letter can be found by following the link to The Age.
Links:
