Prevalence of tutoring for selective school students should be questioned

Private tutoring for school students has exploded in Sydney, as parents seek to give their children the best chance to succeed academically, particularly in the selective school test, private school scholarship exams, and the HSC.

As education editor Lucy Carroll writes in today’s Sun-Herald, outside-of-school tutoring is now a billion-dollar industry. But experts say greater government oversight is needed of what has essentially become a shadow education system in our city.

In a study, the first of its kind, University of Technology Sydney researcher Christina Ho has revealed that between 23 and 59 per cent of year 5 students at some Sydney schools are privately tutored.

Although the study only looked at six schools, it is alarming to hear that half of the students at some high-achieving public schools are receiving academic coaching outside the classroom.

Or, perhaps, if you are a parent of a child in an opportunity class, these figures are entirely unsurprising, and even justifiable.

While the NSW Department of Education has always denied that external tutoring is necessary – or even advantageous – for admission into its selective schools, it is undeniable that children who receive external tutoring do very well academically. And, once enrolled in a selective school, it is easy to see how the concerns raised by the teachers Ho spoke to in her research come to light: a widening gap in abilities among students. Both cohorts may be very bright, but if half the class has learnt the content before at tutoring, they are undeniably advantaged.

Carroll reports that selective school principals have estimated 90 per cent of their students are tutored. Each year, major coaching colleges share the names of their students who receive HSC marks with the same pride as those students’ schools.

The prevalence of tutoring in Sydney highlights the influence of a less shadowy, and more often than not celebrated, two-tiered element in the city’s education system: selective schools.

NSW has many more selective public schools than any other state.

This comes with some advantages. Earlier this month, the Herald reported on another piece of research which found NSW public schools were defying a national trend and producing more high-skilled employees, such as doctors, than other states. The trend was attributed to the number of selective schools in the state, which allow students to achieve at the same academic level as their private school peers.

However, it is also known that some Sydney selective schools have socio-economic enrolment profiles that rival high-fee private schools.

The prevalence of external coaching, both for children seeking to receive a place at a selective school and once enrolled, raises the question as to whether these schools are true public schools, given the proportion of students in their classrooms whose parents are spending thousands, if not tens of thousands of dollars, a year on their education. If that is the price of keeping up with the curriculum, is that truly free tuition for all?

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