The CT has this article about the rise in Private School fees for 2009.
Looks as though private schools are going to get even more select not just through tight enrollments but also higher fees during this period of economic downturn.
Nyssa – don’t confuse people having a go at the school with people having a go at the teachers. Where I went to highschool was a total craphole, but there were still some good teachers (and some really crap ones too).
Nyssa – I need some idea of which public high school my 11 yr old should attend in the Tuggeranong area in 2010. I have been told Melrose or Deakin – I have no idea. He is the bookish type.
As an aside: I know the primary schools had to close due to scale of economy and everything, however, since my kids’ primary school was combined with another school from up the road a bit, it has turned totally feral. The Xmas concert used to be a delight. Not now. For the last two years it has been feral hell with the parents talking over the top of the principal – it was embarrassing and cringe worthy.
It really shits me when people have a go at public education.
“The curriculums better in the private system” – here’s a news flash, ALL schools in Canberra have to teach ‘Every Chance to Learn’. They can’t get out of it.
All children will be taught from the same curriculum, so where’s the difference?
Financially.
I work in a school in a low socio-economic area. I have to purchase basics for my students as many come to school without them.
I’ve worked in both systems and both have their strengths and their weaknesses.
I went through the Govt sytem, all the way to Yr 12. My children attend Govt schools – K, 3 and 8.
Their schools are two of the best in the Tuggeranong area.
Parental involvement in schooling does assist a child in how well they do. Teachers aren’t babysitters nor are they the only ‘role models’ a child should see.
I know some great Govt students and some crappy Non-Govt ones. It just depends on where you look.
Parents send their children to private schools so that they are fostered into wonderful young men or women. Not all come out smelling rosy, but the parent’s are trying to give their children the best opportunity to learn and grow. There are often occasions where the scores may not be as high as other school students, but that more often than not comes down to the individual students and how much they can exploit their schooling system i.e. I.B. school students that don’t attend classes and only cram for their exams.
Sexual abuse can happen at all schools as pointed out earlier. That doesn’t mean we should be home-schooling our children for goodness sakes!
Any one who sends their kid to a catholic school now, especially a boarding school, and thinks they are not going to come out with a poor education and a size nine arse, needs their heads read.
Private schools are just orphanages for rich kids.
I went to public school, but will probably send young master berlina to private for highschool and college. It seems to me that we constantly hear about teachers getting hassled by idiot parents and getting no support, gang activity on school grounds, violent bullying kids who ‘can’t’ be expelled, and the continuous dumbing down of education standards due to political correctness. My understanding is that private schools have a much stronger framework combining beliefs, ethics and behavioural standards, which is sorely lacking in the public system.
In the end, my reality is simply that I busted my arse to get to where I am. I will still expect my kid to work hard (both academically and within paid employment as soon as he’s old enough), but he shouldn’t have to put up with the BS and mixed messages that get sent to kids through many schools in the public system (like I had to).
Fear is the main driver of school choice these days. That is, fear that their ‘special’ child might get contaminated by the hoi polloi and their values (which, we are encouraged to think, we are a cut above). And it doesn’t help when the local govt encourages school shopping between its own!
This has been a trend for some time. Given the fracturing and divisive policies from the previous fed Coalition govt, I am not the least bit surprised that private ed is now proportionally higher than it ever was (for example, think of the formerly universal services to all Australians that we have been encouraged to think of in a segregated manner on the basis of income, eg Medicare/Private Health). There has been a paradigm shift, and we have been encouraged to adjust our mindset to see everything in monetary and ‘class’ terms. This, in my view, is downright un-Australian in the truest sense of Aussie values.
In the 1970s, it was unusual for Canberra children to go to a private school, as it was such an egalitarian town and public schools were funded well – certainly far far better than the catholic schools. My family (with teacher parents, one from a catholic ed background) sent us to public schools, which had smaller classes and better resources. The pre-school system was the flagship for the nation. The irony is, Whitlam got poorer cath schools better resourced, and now they seem to constantly whinge about their funding ‘entitlements’!
The best education in the world is in Finland, where all kids go to the local school and teachers are highly qualified and respected.
If people want to go private, that’s their choice, but I get really annoyed that the public system is devalued and denigrated as a result, often by their own departmental policy.
As someone who went to one of the pricier private schools in Brisbane (on partial scholarship), I would definitely send any future kiddies to a state school. Selective private schools end up as echo chambers, reinforcing the largely upper middle class ideals of the parents and really distorting the view of the kids as to the nature of greater society. As for the education provided at public schools, my better half went to one and probably got a far better education than I did. You get out of it what you put into it in either case, but I don’t buy the ‘instilling values’ argument. The only value I was instilled with was that money mattered above everything else and the career you went into and the career of your future husband were the way you should define yourself. Oh, and I found that same-sex schooling didn’t help socially and left me in an odd place when university rolled around.
I’m surprised parents are still prepared to send their kids to private schools after reading the threads about Marist and Daramalan on this site and seeing the reports on TV . . .
What about the number of public school teachers who have been sent to gaol for striking up sexual relations with their students?
Here are just some examples from Australia and abroad:
Expansion of private sector education has not been good for the development of a cohesive society. I would hazard a guess that most policy makers in education sent or are sending their kids to private schools. Kevin Rudd for example. Resource levels at government schools are not good enough for his kid, but they’re good enough for other people’s.
First define what you mean by “cohesive society”.
I went to a public school and my experiences there are the reason why I would never send my children to one. The problem with government-run schools is that, almost universally, they are now full of new-age social engineering theory that attempts to mediocritise, deculturalise and dehumanise. Public schools have no soul, and it has nothing to do with resourcing.
Speaking of resourcing, the majority of “private” schools around the country are of the Catholic variety, and nearly all of them are less well resourced than their public equivalents.
I’m surprised parents are still prepared to send their kids to private schools after reading the threads about Marist and Daramalan on this site and seeing the reports on TV . . .
Part of the demand for private school education is from people who want a school that instills the same values they instill at home. Where discipline is enforced, and not undermined by parents. where standards of behaviour are expected and maintained.
I’m not sure that increased resourcing of public schools would see an upgrade of parent involvement in these issues.
I went to a private school (one of the more pricey ones on the CT list) and a large number of the kids there had 2-income families who made choices in order to afford to send their kids to private school. That said, I don’t think the gulf between the most expensive and the next tier was quite so vast. I don’t think that many of the people I knew would have afforded it now.
There are a lot of kids whose parents cannot afford to send them to a private school regardless of the sacrifices they might make, other parents don’t choose to. Expansion of private sector education has not been good for the development of a cohesive society. I would hazard a guess that most policy makers in education sent or are sending their kids to private schools. Kevin Rudd for example. Resource levels at government schools are not good enough for his kid, but they’re good enough for other people’s.
I went to a private school (one of the more pricey ones on the CT list) and a large number of the kids there had 2-income families who made choices in order to afford to send their kids to private school. That said, I don’t think the gulf between the most expensive and the next tier was quite so vast. I don’t think that many of the people I knew would have afforded it now.
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What’s Your opinion?
Private School Costs Rise
Nyssa – don’t confuse people having a go at the school with people having a go at the teachers. Where I went to highschool was a total craphole, but there were still some good teachers (and some really crap ones too).
Hi,
Nyssa – I need some idea of which public high school my 11 yr old should attend in the Tuggeranong area in 2010. I have been told Melrose or Deakin – I have no idea. He is the bookish type.
As an aside: I know the primary schools had to close due to scale of economy and everything, however, since my kids’ primary school was combined with another school from up the road a bit, it has turned totally feral. The Xmas concert used to be a delight. Not now. For the last two years it has been feral hell with the parents talking over the top of the principal – it was embarrassing and cringe worthy.
It really shits me when people have a go at public education.
“The curriculums better in the private system” – here’s a news flash, ALL schools in Canberra have to teach ‘Every Chance to Learn’. They can’t get out of it.
All children will be taught from the same curriculum, so where’s the difference?
Financially.
I work in a school in a low socio-economic area. I have to purchase basics for my students as many come to school without them.
I’ve worked in both systems and both have their strengths and their weaknesses.
I went through the Govt sytem, all the way to Yr 12. My children attend Govt schools – K, 3 and 8.
Their schools are two of the best in the Tuggeranong area.
Parental involvement in schooling does assist a child in how well they do. Teachers aren’t babysitters nor are they the only ‘role models’ a child should see.
I know some great Govt students and some crappy Non-Govt ones. It just depends on where you look.
Real intelligent there PB. Smart comment.
Parents send their children to private schools so that they are fostered into wonderful young men or women. Not all come out smelling rosy, but the parent’s are trying to give their children the best opportunity to learn and grow. There are often occasions where the scores may not be as high as other school students, but that more often than not comes down to the individual students and how much they can exploit their schooling system i.e. I.B. school students that don’t attend classes and only cram for their exams.
Sexual abuse can happen at all schools as pointed out earlier. That doesn’t mean we should be home-schooling our children for goodness sakes!
And public schools are training grounds for the lazy and/or criminal.
Any one who sends their kid to a catholic school now, especially a boarding school, and thinks they are not going to come out with a poor education and a size nine arse, needs their heads read.
Private schools are just orphanages for rich kids.
I went to public school, but will probably send young master berlina to private for highschool and college. It seems to me that we constantly hear about teachers getting hassled by idiot parents and getting no support, gang activity on school grounds, violent bullying kids who ‘can’t’ be expelled, and the continuous dumbing down of education standards due to political correctness. My understanding is that private schools have a much stronger framework combining beliefs, ethics and behavioural standards, which is sorely lacking in the public system.
In the end, my reality is simply that I busted my arse to get to where I am. I will still expect my kid to work hard (both academically and within paid employment as soon as he’s old enough), but he shouldn’t have to put up with the BS and mixed messages that get sent to kids through many schools in the public system (like I had to).
Fear is the main driver of school choice these days. That is, fear that their ‘special’ child might get contaminated by the hoi polloi and their values (which, we are encouraged to think, we are a cut above). And it doesn’t help when the local govt encourages school shopping between its own!
This has been a trend for some time. Given the fracturing and divisive policies from the previous fed Coalition govt, I am not the least bit surprised that private ed is now proportionally higher than it ever was (for example, think of the formerly universal services to all Australians that we have been encouraged to think of in a segregated manner on the basis of income, eg Medicare/Private Health). There has been a paradigm shift, and we have been encouraged to adjust our mindset to see everything in monetary and ‘class’ terms. This, in my view, is downright un-Australian in the truest sense of Aussie values.
In the 1970s, it was unusual for Canberra children to go to a private school, as it was such an egalitarian town and public schools were funded well – certainly far far better than the catholic schools. My family (with teacher parents, one from a catholic ed background) sent us to public schools, which had smaller classes and better resources. The pre-school system was the flagship for the nation. The irony is, Whitlam got poorer cath schools better resourced, and now they seem to constantly whinge about their funding ‘entitlements’!
The best education in the world is in Finland, where all kids go to the local school and teachers are highly qualified and respected.
If people want to go private, that’s their choice, but I get really annoyed that the public system is devalued and denigrated as a result, often by their own departmental policy.
As someone who went to one of the pricier private schools in Brisbane (on partial scholarship), I would definitely send any future kiddies to a state school. Selective private schools end up as echo chambers, reinforcing the largely upper middle class ideals of the parents and really distorting the view of the kids as to the nature of greater society. As for the education provided at public schools, my better half went to one and probably got a far better education than I did. You get out of it what you put into it in either case, but I don’t buy the ‘instilling values’ argument. The only value I was instilled with was that money mattered above everything else and the career you went into and the career of your future husband were the way you should define yourself. Oh, and I found that same-sex schooling didn’t help socially and left me in an odd place when university rolled around.
/$0.02
Steady Eddie said :
What about the number of public school teachers who have been sent to gaol for striking up sexual relations with their students?
Here are just some examples from Australia and abroad:
http://www.news.com.au/couriermail/story/0,27574,24789505-3102,00.html
http://www.theage.com.au/news/national/student-sex-affair-teacher-jailed/2008/05/23/1211183065500.html
http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2004/08/05/1091558002934.html
http://www.thewest.com.au/default.aspx?MenuID=29&ContentID=31304
http://www.news.com.au/heraldsun/story/0,21985,23559431-2862,00.html
Why would anyone want to send their kids to school at all eh?
monomania said :
First define what you mean by “cohesive society”.
I went to a public school and my experiences there are the reason why I would never send my children to one. The problem with government-run schools is that, almost universally, they are now full of new-age social engineering theory that attempts to mediocritise, deculturalise and dehumanise. Public schools have no soul, and it has nothing to do with resourcing.
Speaking of resourcing, the majority of “private” schools around the country are of the Catholic variety, and nearly all of them are less well resourced than their public equivalents.
I’m surprised parents are still prepared to send their kids to private schools after reading the threads about Marist and Daramalan on this site and seeing the reports on TV . . .
Part of the demand for private school education is from people who want a school that instills the same values they instill at home. Where discipline is enforced, and not undermined by parents. where standards of behaviour are expected and maintained.
I’m not sure that increased resourcing of public schools would see an upgrade of parent involvement in these issues.
ant said :
There are a lot of kids whose parents cannot afford to send them to a private school regardless of the sacrifices they might make, other parents don’t choose to. Expansion of private sector education has not been good for the development of a cohesive society. I would hazard a guess that most policy makers in education sent or are sending their kids to private schools. Kevin Rudd for example. Resource levels at government schools are not good enough for his kid, but they’re good enough for other people’s.
I went to a private school (one of the more pricey ones on the CT list) and a large number of the kids there had 2-income families who made choices in order to afford to send their kids to private school. That said, I don’t think the gulf between the most expensive and the next tier was quite so vast. I don’t think that many of the people I knew would have afforded it now.