Why old school ties still count

It shouldn’t matter where you went to school, but it does, particularly to prospective employers, writes Kylie Lang. VOTE IN OUR POLL

It shouldn’t matter where you went to school, but it does.

When one of the first questions you’re asked when you meet someone is, “What school did you go to?” this is not a lazy conversation starter.

Rather, it is to place you, even define you, and, dare I say it, decide whether or not you’re worth knowing.

It starts as soon as you leave school and fumble for a sense of belonging in the real world, and it goes on, and on.

Eulogies of distinguished “old boys” and “old girls” are peppered with anecdotes of what they achieved before the ripe old age of 17.

I’m told it’s a uniquely Brisbane thing, this fixation on schools. It certainly didn’t come up in my twenties when I was working in Sydney.

Friends in Melbourne say the obsessive interest is absurd, and that people in Brisbane should get over it.

I don’t disagree.

I mean, it’s not as if you made a conscious choice of where to be educated. That was your parents’ call, and greatly dependent on a number of variables.

Not many people could fork out for Queensland’s most expensive school, Brisbane Grammar, where high school will set you back $170,000 – for tuition only – or $217,000 if you throw in Years 5 and 6. Add siblings and the equation becomes even more staggering.

Brisbane Grammar is Queensland’s most expensive school.

Others wouldn’t send their children to private schools even if money was no object. Some believe, for example, a state school offers a more grounded experience.

But there is no denying that, in white collar professions in particular, a private school pedigree counts.

Top Brisbane recruiter Peter Murphy says where you went to school “definitely influences employers”.

“It gets you to the front of the queue, to the starting line for an interview, but after that it’s up to you,” says Mr Murphy, of C3 Talent.

“There are still businesses, though, which only take private school kids, whether they’re great prospects or not.

“One South African woman we recently placed (in a job) had worked all over the world and said Brisbane was the only place she’d ever been asked about her schooling.”

I know prominent Brisbane businesses operators who unapologetically favour graduates of a leading GPS boys’ school because they, or their sons went there, and they believe the college turns out gentlemen with good manners and a strong work ethic.

That, you’d have to say, is very subjective, but it happens.

Old school ties are incredibly powerful.

This is partly why parents go to extraordinary lengths to get their kids into certain colleges in a fight for limited places that is all-consuming.

Some lie about their religious faith, donate huge sums of money, and fork out for private tutors and sporting coaches to give their little ones the best chance at a spot.

Contrary to ill-informed opinion, not all private school parents are well-heeled. Many work second jobs, and make big sacrifices, to give their kids what they consider to be the best education.

It’s an unpopular view if you’re one of those people who think private schools get too much funding, but the fees parents pay save the government squillions of dollars that taxpayers would otherwise spend to educate those students.

Of the $61.5 billion recurrent expenditure by federal, state and territory governments on school education, $46.6 billion goes to free government schools, according to the Productivity Commission.

A commission report found taxpayers give $6537 a year less to private school students than to those in the state system.

Queensland state school students attract $17,441 each in funding to cover teacher salaries and school running costs, excluding buildings.

Their private school peers receive $10,977 each, with fees covering the shortfall.

I am one of those parents who went without to send my child to the school I felt was best for him. To me, it was money well spent, and I only had one child to consider.

I didn’t just buy an education; I bought a school culture I believed in and, yes, hopefully connections that will last into the future.

School shouldn’t define you, or determine who or what you become, but starting adulthood with a well-rounded education certainly doesn’t hurt, regardless of where you went to school.

Kylie Lang is an associate editor of The Courier-Mail

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