Families in Oak Park, Fawkner, Pascoe Vale abandoning public schools for private

Frustrated families in Oak Park, Pascoe Vale and Fawkner are demanding the state government fix the decaying state of their public schools.

Oak Park mum Jen Harding has been campaigning for the state government to provide better public secondary school education in the Moreland area. Picture: Nicki Connolly

Families abandoning local public high schools for private colleges in Melbourne’s north are calling on the new Education Minister to make schools in their area a priority ahead of the state election.

Parents with children at local primary schools in suburbs such as Oak Park, Pascoe Vale and Fawkner are reluctant to send their children to state secondary schools, despite their kids attending public primary schools.

Members of community action group RISE – which is campaigning for an education plan for schools in the north – say “negative perceptions” of local high schools, gender disparity and overall lack of funding have remained pressing issues among parents since they were first raised with the Education Department more than a decade ago.

Co-founder Mabrooka Singh, who has two primary aged boys, said outgoing Education Minister James Merlino had not accepted a meeting with the group, but hoped Natalie Hutchins’ appointment as the new Education Minister would provide more support for public education in Moreland.

“People are frustrated. We want the state government to get involved. We are a little more confident now there’s another Education Minister,” she said.

Both Glenroy College and John Fawkner College in Moreland’s north are coeducational, but 70 per cent of Fawkner’s student cohort is male, and Glenroy’s is 66 per cent male.

According to MySchool data, enrolments at Glenroy College have dropped by five per cent since 2016, while John Fawkner College saw a 10 per cent decline.

Pascoe Vale Girls Secondary College is the only all-girls government secondary school in the area.

Meanwhile, enrolments at nearby Glenroy Private have doubled in that time.

The group is calling on Ms Hutchins to consider making Pascoe Vale Girls Secondary College co-ed to kerb the gender imbalance and declining academic results at the other schools.

But with the school set to remain all-girls, a government spokeswoman said Glenroy, Pascoe Vale and Fawkner had received a $21 million cash injection to help get their facilities and teaching qualities up to standard.

“We’ll continue to monitor enrolments in the area, and we’re working closely with the local community to discuss initiatives that will improve outcomes for local students,” she said.

Programs on offer at the three schools are also being expanded because restructuring Pascoe Vale as a co-ed school would spark major zoning changes in Coburg and Strathmore.

Oak Park mother of four primary school children and RISE member Jen Harding said she wanted to see the local schools improve because she did not want to move out of the area like other families she knew.

“I would like to send my kids to all go to the same public school, but I don’t feel that the schools we have in the area will help them to be their best,” she said.

A survey of almost 1000 Moreland residents conducted by RISE found 93 per cent of respondents thought the quality of education and opportunities at the secondary schools were sub-par.

But the data also revealed that there was still demand for public education in the area, with 80 per cent of residents sending their children to public primary schools.

The group on Wednesday is set to meet with several politicians across various parties such as the Greens and Victorian Liberals to discuss the future of public secondary education in Moreland.