Migrant students outperform classmates in Australian schools

“This is heaven for me – no forced study and the maths is so easy.’’ Why Asian students are excelling in Australian schools.

Felix Catholic principal Fran Bonanno with year 3 students Charbel Keirouz, 8, and Princess Lawal, 8. Picture: Jane Dempster/The Australian

When Chinese migrant Peter Li came to Australia as a teenager, high school felt “relaxing’’.

“When I was in China, even on the school holidays I went to tutors and after-school classes all the time,’’ he recalls. “I would do homework til 11.30 at night and get up at 7am for school.’’

As the successful owner of a Sydney property agency, 39-year-old Li now helps other Asian immigrants buy homes close to top schools. The elite private schools of The Scots College, Knox Grammar, Barker College and Cranbrook are favourites for boys, he says, while Asian parents hope to send their daughters to Ascham, Kambala or PLC Sydney.

Children of migrants now account for 90 per cent of enrolments in many of Australia’s top public schools, as families with a non-English-speaking heritage seek the best opportunities for their children.

The contribution of aspirational migrant families to lifting schools’ academic results is evident in the latest results of NAPLAN (National Assessment Program – Literacy and Numeracy). In year 9, so-called LBOTE students – those with a language background other than English, meaning they or their parents speak a foreign language at home – top the class. Even in year 3, bilingual migrant children read better, on average, than kids with mother-tongue English.

St Leo's primary school in Altona North has posted growth in NAPLAN scores across multiple learning areas in recent years. Grade 5 students Mia and Ryan are at work on the whiteboard in the classroom. Picture: Ian Currie

Last year, 7.3 per cent of LBOTE students achieved the top band in year 9 reading, compared to 4.6 per cent of native English speakers. In numeracy, the migrant kids excelled, with 11.2 per cent achieving top scores, compared to 4 per cent of English speakers.

Ambitious, determined and eager to learn, migrant children from Asia and India are dominating the academically selective schools that admit only the smartest students. At the highest-performing school in Australia, James Ruse Agricultural High School in Sydney’s northwestern suburb of Carlingford, 97 per cent of students are LBOTE. At Parramatta High, LBOTE students make up 96 per cent of enrolments. Nine out of 10 students attending a dozen of NSW’s selective schools are LBOTE, along with at least 80 per cent in Victoria’s four selective schools and 78 per cent at the Queensland Academy for Science Mathematics and Technology.

The Grattan Institute think tank has calculated that children of migrant families consistently outperform their non-migrant peers at school – and learn faster, too. Migrant-rich schools achieve seven months more growth in numeracy than other schools between years 7 and 9.

“Immigrants are often looking for more opportunities and are very committed to improving educational outcomes for their children,’’ says Grattan Institute education program director Jordana Hunter. “If parents set high expectations, emphasise the importance of education and create conditions for students to take their work seriously, this has a positive impact on academic outcomes.’’

Hunter points out that refugee children, who may be traumatised by their lives before arriving in Australia, often need “a lot of support’’ at school, compared to migrant children with highly educated and wealthier parents.

Grattan Institute education program director Jordana Hunter.

Former NSW premier Gladys Berejiklian. Picture: Jane Dempster/The Australian

Former NSW premier Gladys Berejiklian, whose Armenian grandparents were orphaned through genocide, could not speak English when she started school in Sydney at the age of five. She told the Sydney Institute her parents were “obsessed’’ about her getting into university. “I was obsessed with that too,’’ she recalled. “I knew I wanted to make a difference and make my family’s sacrifices worthwhile.’’

Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk’s grandfather, Leo, was a Polish immigrant who began his life in Australia at the Wacol Migrant Camp, and educated himself by reading encyclopedias after work. “He did not have any opportunities for education when during his early adult years he was in a German slave labour camp,’’ the Premier said in her maiden speech to parliament. “He instilled in my father a strong sense of education. He then passed those values on to me.”

Palaszczuk, who travelled three hours a day to attend her Catholic high school, has two university degrees. Her father, Henry, became a teacher before entering politics, and two of her three sisters are teachers.

Federal Education Minister Jason Clare remains friends with immigrant classmates from Cabramatta Public School in western Sydney, where his blond hair stood out as unusual. “I was in a class with kids who were refugees from Southeast Asia and South America,’’ he told Inquirer when he started the job in June.

Federal Education Minister Jason Clare. Picture: NCA NewsWire/Brendan Read

“(Now) they’re doctors and partners in law firms or have set up multimillion-dollar businesses. That’s the power of education. You can go from one generation being refugees, to the next being university graduates.’’

Australia’s multicultural success story is highlighted by the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development. It analysed data from its Program for International Student Assessment, which tests reading, science and mathematics proficiency of 600,000 15-year-old students from 79 countries – including 14,373 students from 740 Australian schools.

The OECD analysis of Australia’s 2015 results found that first-generation immigrants from China were 10 per cent more likely than “native students’’ to attain baseline academic proficiency, with Indian students not far behind. Schools in which more than half the students were migrants were 5 per cent more likely to achieve baseline proficiency than those with low numbers of migrants.

Interestingly, the OECD found that in Australia, “immigrant students tended to be enrolled in schools with a more positive disciplinary climate than native students’’.

Australia’s PISA results are often compared unflatteringly to China, whose teenagers lead the world in academic performance. The reading ability of Australian students was a year and a half behind students in China in the last test, in 2018. In maths and science, China was at least three years ahead of Australia.

Li, whose Plus Agency is helping aspirational migrant families find homes in Australia, offers a personal perspective. The self-described son of a “tiger mum’’, Li recalls his teenage years studying in northeastern China, close to the Russian border, as stressful.

“I never had any proper school holidays till I came to Australia,’’ he says. “China had a single-child policy so all Mum’s time and energy was focused on me. When I first came to Australia I thought, ‘This is heaven for me – no forced study and the maths is so easy and I can choose what subjects I like to study in high school’. Australian schools are a lot more relaxed compared to China.’’

St Felix Catholic School year 3 students (from left) Aaron Le, Jack Drennan and Isabella Hoang, all 8, work together developing mathematical fluency. Picture: Jane Dempster/The Australian

Li says his migrant clients are seeking an “all-round education’’ for their children, with extracurricular offerings and a smorgasbord of subjects. “In China you don’t have a choice about the subjects, and you go to big classes with 50 or 60 people in the class. If you put us in a mathematics competition we’ll kill it. But it’s not as diversified as Australian schools.

“Exam results are not the only thing in life for your child. Sports and social skills are important – you need to learn to play basketball or rugby. Parents are looking for a fully rounded education with music, choir, chess and drama.’’

Fran Bonanno is the principal at St Felix Catholic Primary School in the western Sydney suburb of Bankstown, where 98 per cent of students are classified as LBOTE. “I think most migrants are aspirational,’’ she says. “We get good support from parents. You ask what they wish for their children and they say, ‘A good education’. Sometimes the parents or grandparents from a Chinese background will bow to you as an acknowledgment of respect. It’s very humbling, and it’s a huge privilege to be able to help their children.’’