Another private school forced to shut down

ST Anthony's Coptic Orthodox College in Frankston North has become the third Victorian school to go into administration this year.

ST Anthony's Coptic Orthodox College in Frankston North yesterday became the third Victorian school to go into administration this year.

About 300 students attend the prep to Year 12 college, which was established in 1995 in Melbourne's outer southeast.

In May more than 1000 students were left without a school when Mowbray College in the western suburbs closed its doors, and last month Acacia College, near Mernda, north of Melbourne, was forced to close.

St Anthony's charges annual fees of $2715 for Year 12, and offers the Victorian Certificate of Education and the vocational Victorian Certificate of Applied Learning program. Last year it had a Year 12 cohort of 29 students and employed 13 secondary and eight primary teachers.

School director Father Athanasius Attia told the Herald Sun newspaper : "We basically didn't have the finances to take the college through 2013 onwards."

The school's 2011 annual report suggested its corporate identity as a registered company limited by guarantee answerable to the Australian Securities & Investments Commission provided the school with financial security.

Ninety-eight per cent of the school's students are from families that speak a language other than English.

Last year, 26 per cent of its students achieved an Australian Tertiary Admission Rank above 90; 56 per cent ranked above 80.