TOPSFIELD, Jewel. Melbourne journalist exposes segregated education system in the State of Victoria, Australia

Jewel Topsfield is a journalist with The Age newspaper, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia (see: http://www.theage.com.au/national/education/familiar-names-at-top-of-the-vce-summit-20101215-18y68.html#poll ).

Jewel Topsfield on private versus state segregated education in Victoria, Australian (2010) : “Students at private and selective government schools dramatically outperformed those at other public schools in this year's VCE, raising fears Victoria has a segregated education system.

MacRobertson Girls High School, a selective government school where more than 1200 students compete for 225 year 9 places every year, blitzed the field with 44 per cent of subject scores 40 or above.

But the public system was generally poorly represented in the rankings, which were dominated by private schools, most of them from the eastern suburbs.

The highest-performing non-selective or specialist state school was Glen Waverley Secondary College, with 21 per cent of study scores 40 or above. VCE subjects are marked out of 50, with a study score of 30 the average, and more than 40 considered an excellent result.

Jewish schools did exceptionally well, with Beth Rivkah Ladies College (35 per cent of study scores 40 or above), Bialik College (35 per cent), Mount Scopus Memorial College (35 per cent) and Leibler Yavneh College (33 per cent) all in the top 10. Ballarat Clarendon College was the highest-performing regional school for the seventh successive year, with 27 per cent of study scores over 40, placing the school in the top 10.” [1].

[1]. Jewel Topsfield, “Familiar names at the top of the VCE summit”, The Age, 16 December 2010: http://www.theage.com.au/national/education/familiar-names-at-top-of-the-vce-summit-20101215-18y68.html#poll .