This year’s New South Wales selective school tests have featured police, tears and months of tutoring. What is the impact on students?
- Associate professor in Social and Political Sciences, University of Technology Sydney
The NSW state government has just announced a major overhaul of its selective school program. This aim is to make it fairer for children from disadvantaged backgrounds to secure a coveted spot.
School zones are a logical way to manage school enrolments, and the policy helps to create schools that are community hubs, ones that reflect the local areas they serve.
Selective schools aim to give all gifted students, particularly those from disadvantaged backgrounds, opportunities they may not have had otherwise. But that’s not what’s actually happening.
While there has been talk of a “religious vote” or an “ethnic vote” holding sway at this election, particularly in Sydney’s western suburbs, new research does not bear that out.
Dallas Rogers speaks with Chris Ho and Edgar Liu about what's going on in apartment buildings as we move up, rather than out, and how we can look after ourselves and each other in culturally diverse, high-density living.
The combination of higher-density living and increasing cultural diversity means we need to think about how to build social cohesion and make the most of the opportunities of apartment living.
New research reveals that about half of opinion pieces in mainstream newspapers and television are so racist they potentially breach industry codes of conduct.
As increasing diversity and density come to characterise our cities, how can we build harmonious communities within apartment complexes?
Analysis of MySchool data shows that selective public schools are selecting fewer students from the most disadvantaged backgrounds, thus worsening inequality in the school system.
While some parents are investing in tutoring and preparing for examinations from an early age, others are strongly rejecting this approach. Why is this?
Rather than being microcosms of the community, schools are increasingly divided by class and ethnicity.
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