This article
shows that those who "attended private primary schools don't perform any
better in NAPLAN tests than their peers at public schools" (Marriner 2013)
which therefore argues the notion that private schools offer 'better education'
than public schools because of reasons such as better facilities ,more fees and
presumably more experienced teachers. Professor Connelly suggests that
"it's not the type of school that changes [the result], it's the things
that are being done for the child at home" which I definitely agree upon
because of my experiences in a public school. I have a friend who goes to a
private school and we once compared the differences between the schools. From
what she told me, students at her private school (Abbotsleigh) were extremely
competitive, controlled and students were pressured with high expectations from
parents, to the point where students would be devastated if they received lower
marks than intended. At my school however, most people had their careers in
their mind so competitiveness and parent expectations were all upon certain
individuals but certainly not within a large amount of students. This was a slight downfall at my school
because a few students did not require high ATARs for their courses and
therefore they did not put a lot of effort into achieving high results, which resulted
in dragging the cohort for scaling purposes.
What are the
differences for private and public schools then if the education results
depends on the students rather than the school? From what I think, rather than
the assumption of private education having more chances of success in receiving
higher results "parents do care about academics but they also are very m
uch about school demographics - something they will not admit to verbally"
(Schneider and Buckley 2002, p. 141). Social status are important figures of
identity for the family as private schools can reflect upon the income or jobs
of parents, hence images of wealth and an educated family will be produced when
compared to someone from a public school. Ho (2011, p. 609) confirmed this as
she comments that "where there is total freedom of school choice and where
catchment areas do not exist, it suggests that in addition to the perceived
quality of education offered by the school, parents choices are principally
about religion, social status and ethnicity (Kelly:268)"
I also
believe that a reason for choosing private schools or public schools are fees,
isolation and student environment. Money is an obvious matter as private
schools are offered to those who are advantaged, unless accepted through
scholarship, so those who think private schools are not worth the fees will not
enter. Separation of genders, religion and culture is also important as parents
may want to only expose their student to a certain environment, thinking that
it will benefit them. Ho (2011, p. 616) comments that "the white and
middle-class flight from comprehensive public schools undermines the ability of
these schools to serve as potential micropublics for young Australians; and
given the comparatively low levels of cultural diversity at the many private
schools, these also fail to provide a promising setting for students to
understand and negotiate cultural (and gender) differences". In respect to
Ho's statement, I agree with the idea of micropublics for certain classes and
races. For the environment of public school and private schools, students
within a private schools are rarely exposed to those who are disadvantaged,
therefore limiting their knowledge and relations with them. Conflicting
perspectives may also never been raised regularly if the private school was
restricted to religion or sex. However in comparison with public schools,
private schools offer only those who are advantaged, therefore it can aid families
can help students into entering professional jobs easier through family or
student relationship. There are special
cases for different schools however, such as selective schools being a public
school but having high ranks and lower diversity of cultures within. Depending on the private school or the public
school's reputation, attitudes or rumors that come from the school can affect a
student's future resume.
* Ho, C. (2011). Respecting the presence of others: School micropublics
and everyday multiculturalism. Journal of International Studies, 32(6),
603-619.
* Kelly, A., (2009). Juxtaposing some contradictory findings from research
on school choice. Magis, revista internacional de investigacion en educacion, 2
(3), p. 261-274
* Marriner,C. (October 13th 2013). Private schools no guarantee of higher
NAPLAN scores, study finds. Sydney
Morning Herald. Retrieved 13th October 2013 from http://www.smh.com.au/national/education/private-schools-no-guarantee-of-higher-naplan-scores-study-finds-20131012-2vf63.html
* Schneider, M. and Buckley, J. (2002). What do parents want from schools?
Evidence from the Internet.Educational
evaluation and policy analysis, 24 (2), pp.
133--144
No comments:
Post a Comment