Enrolments spike at Melbourne’s top state schools as private education falls behind

Enrolments at some of Melbourne’s best-performing state schools are skyrocketing in recent years, as more parents shun private education in favour of public.

More students are being pulled out of private schools and enrolled into high-performing public schools like McKinnon Secondary College. Picture: Nicole Cleary

More parents are pulling their children out of private schools and enrolling them in high-performing public schools, a new study has revealed.

Since the release of school-level NAPLAN results in 2010 via the My School website, high-scoring public schools saw an average increase of 53 students per year, the University of Melbourne research found.

Aside from selective entry public schools, Auburn High, Mckinnon Secondary College, Glen Waverley Secondary College and Highvale Secondary College were among the top performing secondary state schools, analysis of the most recent Year 9 NAPLAN results show.

Auburn High, in Hawthorn East, increased enrolments by more than 60 per cent from 420 in 2017 to 675 in 2022, My School data shows.

The percentage of students from the top 25 per cent of Victoria’s richest families also increased from 44 to 61 per cent.

Highvale Secondary College was among the state’s top performing secondary state schools.

Mckinnon College saw enrolments jump more than 20 per cent, from 2094 in 2017 to 2538 in 2022.

Similarly, at Glen Waverley and Highvale College enrolments and the percentage of children from the top socio-economic status quartile increased – making up nearly half of all students.

The study found low performing private schools experienced the biggest decline in enrolments – dropping by on average 117 students per year between 2011 and 2015.

Co-author and Associate Professor from the university Cain Polidano said My School’s release changed perceptions of public school quality.

“In the absence of NAPLAN information, many people choose private over public schools under the belief that the extra cost means ‘better quality’,” he said.

“Parents buy into private schools expecting their school to do well – that’s why they pay extra in school fees.

“But when they find out they’re not performing well and maybe even worse than the local public school, it’s a shock and they move with their feet.”

McKinnon Secondary College enrolments skyrocketed in recent years. Picture: Nicole Cleary

Dr Polidano said the website has prompted more families to “look a bit harder and consider whether private school investment is really worth it”.

Families from the bottom and top socio-economic quartiles make up the most of new enrolments at high performing public schools, on average 47 and 26 students respectively.

“This strong response contradicts survey evidence that low socio-economic status families do not value academic achievement as much when choosing schools,” Dr Polidano said.

“But it is consistent with the notion that those same families can benefit more from the information to support education choices.”

The research found no change in enrolments among low-scoring public schools.

Dr Polidano said this is mainly because these schools are in rural and remote areas where there are few accessible high-scoring options locally.

He warned increasing concentrations of disadvantaged kids in low-scoring schools can worsen inequality in education.

Glen Waverley Secondary College has become a popular choice for a high school education. Picture: Facebook

“Your peers matter – if you’ve got more disadvantaged peers in school with more disadvantaged peers by large, your learning environment is impoverished,” he said.

“There can also be a loss of good teachers if the learning environment becomes more challenging.”

Dr Polidano said schools are under increasing pressure to score well on NAPLAN.

“Especially private schools in suburban areas where there’s a lot of competition,” he said.

“There’s exemption rates, for instance, in NAPLAN – reasons why principals can exempt kids from this test.

“There’s always the worry that exemption rates could go up as a result. That’s just purely playing the system.”

He said parents shouldn’t select schools not just based on their academic results alone, but also their range of co-curricular activities and school culture.

A Government spokesperson said every Victorian child has the right to attend a great local state school.

“The Andrews Labor Government is ensuring every child has access to the best possible education while supporting our teachers to continue doing an amazing job in diverse classrooms every single school day,” they said.