Mounting problem of declining private campus enrolments exposed
Victoria is facing a huge boom in student enrolments — but the state’s Catholic schools are struggling, with multiple school populations decimated by plummeting student numbers. These could be the reasons why.
Education
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The demise of one of Victoria’s oldest Catholic schools has exposed a mounting problem of declining private campus enrolments amid massive public school spending.
Dozens of Catholic campuses — many in direct competition with new public schools — are facing extreme falls in student numbers.
While Presentation College Windsor claims its decline of 29 per cent in enrolments over a decade forced it to shut its doors, other campuses have remained afloat after suffering more severe blows.
Coburg North’s Mercy College has seen student numbers drop by 42 per cent to 430 while Nazareth College in Noble Park North has fallen by a third to 677 students.
Caulfield’s St Aloysius’ School enrolments have halved to 58 pupils, as have those at Vermont South’s Holy Saviour, to 154 students.
Nazareth principal Sam Cosentino said numbers next year would increase “despite all the competition”.
“There are so many schools in this area for choice,” he said.
While inner-city schools have suffered a blow to enrolments, outer suburban and regional areas are facing a boom.
The Victorian government will need to invest billions of dollars to open 100 schools and upgrade others by 2026 in an election commitment amid a booming student population.
An additional 80,000 pupils are expected over the next four years.
But the massive infrastructure project has created a market of fierce competition in areas where schools’ capacities outstrip demand.
Victorian Association of Catholic Primary School Principals president Michael Gray said there were “pockets of decline” in Catholic enrolments, particularly in Melbourne suburbs.
“There’s been big investment by the government in some of these areas, some of the regions are experiencing a shift of demographics and there’s problems with finance,” he said.
The Herald Sun understands Catholic schools are exploring ways to reduce costs for struggling families in a bid to bring them back to their campuses.
PCW principal Filina Virgato said competition from new schools had contributed to the school’s plummeting enrolments.
“Albert Park (College) is certainly a factor in our enrolments. We’ve also had two new government schools opening in Prahran and Richmond, so that’s certainly impacting as well,” she said.
“We also have a number of independent schools that are in the area as well, so there are a lot of choices for our parents.
“There are also schools in the west that are opening up.”
The Herald Sun understands Presentation College rejected moves in recent years to merge or amalgamate with Christian Brothers’ College in St Kilda, or to partner with another girls’ school in the area.
Australian Catholic University adjunct professor Stephen Elder — who was in charge of Catholic Education Melbourne until the end of last year — told the Herald Sun that most inner-city schools were “in enrolment decline”.
“Most of the growth is in the outer suburbs, the new suburbs,” he said.
“Up until the Catholic education sector got major capital funding out of the last state election, it was difficult for them to build the schools to meet the demand. What that will show is that, if the money is used to build new schools in new areas, the Catholic education system’s numbers should lift dramatically.”
Catholic Education Melbourne will receive about $280 million over the next four years from the state government for capital works.
Sources within Catholic education say enrolments across Melbourne schools have continued to grow in recent years.
But the sector has not been able to compete with the state government-funded building boom, which meant surging enrolment numbers in growth corridors were mopped up by new public schools.
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Inner-city schools have also struggled as families with children increasingly moved further from the CBD because of expensive house prices.
Regent Consulting managing director Paul O’Shannassy, a schools adviser, said he feared more all-girls schools could fold as they fought for enrolments in an increasingly crowded market.
Mr O’Shannassy said of 50 private schools in Melbourne with fees of more than $15,000 a year, just seven were all-boys — leaving 43 coeducational and all-girls schools fighting it out for female pupils.
“I don’t think they will be the last one to go under which would be a great shame,’’ Mr O’Shannassy said.
“There are too many of what we call boutique girls schools — there is an over supply which is a shame because so many of them are such high-quality and innovative schools.
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