By Alex Crowe
Enrolment numbers at all-girls state schools continue to decline, leading to a renewed push for a public school in Melbourne to admit boys for the first time in its 68-year history.
Total enrolments at Melbourne’s five all-girls, non-selective government secondary schools fell 13.6 per cent in the five years from 2018 to 2023, MySchool data shows, as student numbers at other state schools continued to grow.
The Craig family are dismayed by the public school opportunities in their area.Credit: Jason South
Dwindling enrolment numbers were most pronounced at Pascoe Vale Girls College, where numbers fell more than 23 per cent over that period, from 1070 in 2018 to 828 in 2023.
Local community group RISE North has been trying for several years to pressure the state government to investigate converting the school to co-ed as part of an education plan to tackle waning secondary school enrolments in the city’s north-west.
RISE spokeswoman Katie Craig said the latest enrolment numbers for Pascoe Vale showed there was not the demand from families in the area for a single-sex public secondary school.
Katie and her husband, Steven, have three children attending primary school in Pascoe Vale and another two in childcare.
She said public primary schools were well attended and families wanted a public high school that their kids could transition to with their friends that was close to home. “They want a well-rounded, well-attended co-ed secondary school.”
Craig pointed to enrolment data from 2021, obtained under freedom of information laws and seen by The Age, that showed the majority of Pascoe Vale Girls College students were not from the suburb.
The biggest cohort came from postcode 3046, which takes in neighbouring Glenroy, Oak Park and Hadfield, the second-biggest percentage were from much further out in 3064 – which takes in Craigieburn, Mickleham, Roxburgh Park, Donnybrook, Kalkallo and Woodstock.
Craig said a feasibility study of Pascoe Vale Girls’ viability as a single-sex school should have been considered as part of the Merri-bek North Education Plan, which Labor committed to ahead of the 2022 election.
“The fact that it was not considered, even flat out ruled out, is a detriment for families and kids in our area,” she said.
Public consultation for the Merri-bek North Education Plan, which includes Coburg High School, Glenroy College and John Fawkner College, was completed in July 2023. It is yet to be finalised.
Local state Labor MP Anthony Cianflone went to the election in 2022 with the position that Pascoe Vale would remain all-girls, after Liberal candidate Tom Wright committed to an education plan for the north that would consider making it co-ed.
Cianflone said Pascoe Vale had provided a quality education for young women and girls for almost 70 years.
“The Merri-bek North Education Plan we committed to recognises and will make provision accordingly for the important role of Pascoe Vale Girls College in supporting local education outcomes across the north,” he said.
Recent all-girls school closures, including Preston Girls High in 2016 and the merger of Gilmore College for Girls into Footscray High in 2020, have reduced the number of all-girls state schools in Victoria.
Families in Melbourne’s south-east have also been increasingly shunning the region’s all-girls non-selective public school, with Canterbury Girls’ Secondary College enrolments dropping almost as much as Pascoe Vale’s.
Canterbury Girls’ Secondary College recorded 1012 enrolments in 2018 – that dropped 21 per cent over five years, to 799 students in 2023.
Mentone Girls’ Secondary College experienced the next-biggest drop in enrolments. It recorded 1150 enrolments in 2018, but they dropped 16 per cent over five years to 963 students in 2023.
Elsewhere, semi-selective Melbourne Girls’ College in Richmond experienced a 4 per cent drop in enrolments and Matthew Flinders Girls Secondary College in Geelong had a 3 per cent fall.
Mac.Robertson Girls’ High School is the only all-girls state school bucking the trend. The selective entry school for years 9 to 12 students increased its enrolments over the five years.
Mac.Robertson enrolments grew 24 per cent over that time, from 954 in 2018 to 1188 students enrolled in 2023.
The International Coalition of Girls’ Schools’ regional executive director, Loren Bridge, said the number of students in single-sex schools in Australia had declined from 7.2 per cent in 2018 to 7 per cent in 2022.
She said enrolments in girls’ schools grew by about 3000 students in the past five years.
The association represents 86 per cent of all-girls schools in Australia and New Zealand, and is an advocate for the educational and social benefits of an all-girls education.
Bridge said a survey in 2023 found 96 per cent of its NSW member schools had an increase in demand for places. The same survey in 2022 found 77 per cent of Victorian member schools had an increase in enrolments, she said.
Enrolment data from 2021 showed the majority of Pascoe Vale Girls College students were not from the suburb.Credit: Joe Armao
She said the disparity in demand between the states could be explained by the fact that there were fewer public single-sex schools in Victoria.
“We believe that for the majority of girls in education, a girls’ school is the optimal education for them,” Bridge said.
The drop in enrolments at Victoria’s five non-selective girls’ schools is at odds with the wider public school enrolment trend.
Annual schools data released by the Australian Bureau of Statistics showed there were 263,616 students enrolled in Victoria’s government schools in 2023, representing a total increase of 10 per cent over five years from 2018.
During the same period, independent schools recorded an increase of 16 per cent while Catholic school enrolments grew by 5 per cent.
The Victorian Education Department said merging any of Melbourne’s remaining five non-selective public girls’ schools was not being considered. The department did not respond to questions regarding Pascoe Vale’s dwindling numbers and feasibility.
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