According to an article in the Sydney Morning Herald, there
are few children of recent migrants entering Sydney’s elite private schools,
which remain the preserve of Australians from English-Speaking backgrounds.
Less than 10% of students at these high-fee private schools have parents that
speak a language other than English at home, whereas 80% of the students come
from English speaking backgrounds. In contrast to the elite private schools, children
of recent migrants dominate public schools.
The minority groups change, but according to Dr. Christine.
Ho, ‘there is a growing unofficial creed among many Australian parents that a
‘good school’ for their children is one where minorities are in the minority. They may not use the word
(ghetto) publicly ... but it's the sentiment going on in their minds.’
Due to Australia’s steady influx of migrant students and their tendency to
attend ‘cheaper’ public schools, said schools are increasingly viewed as
ghettoes, whether they are the disadvantaged schools of poorer suburbs, or the
high achieving selective schools that top all of the league tables. E.g. James
Ruse Agricultural High (which is often regarded as the highest achieving school
in Australia), has a 96% enrolment of students from other language backgrounds.
With the launch of the My School website in 2010 parents are
able to access comprehensive data on the cultural diversity levels of all
schools in Australia. These figures display a distinct pattern of the cultural
skew in Australian schools. E.g. in the wealthier elite suburbs, statistics
suggest that Anglo-Australian have opted away from public schools in favour of
their private counterparts.
This ‘white flight’ to elite private schools causes further
segregation and potential problems in life. Dr Ho states in this article; ‘If
current trends continue, we risk creating highly unbalances school communities
that, rather than reflecting the full diversity of Australian society, instead
constitute unhealthy and unnatural bubbles of segregation and isolation.’ Large
cultural diversity can enhance the richness of Australian society, but also
hinder it. This large intake of ethnic minorities in a short period of time
could cause ghettos, segregation and misunderstanding between mainstream
society and minority groups. It would take longer for integration of ‘new’
migrant groups, like it did in the case of Greeks and Italians.
The interpretation
put on this is that “white flight” is endemic across NSW schools. This term
means that white parents choose a school for their children based on the colour
of its students (an example of racial microaggression in the form of a
microinsult)(Minikel-Lacocque, 2013). While it would be foolish
to deny that there are racist parents in Australia, it is difficult to believe
that racism, by which I mean an irrational prejudice, is the only, or even the
main factor for many parents.
Ho
(2011, p.603) argues that everyday multiculturalism is highly uneven in its
distribution and that there is a significant cultural polarization within
Sydney’s secondary schools. A large number of public schools serve as good
candidates for everyday multiculturalism, but some elite private schools
express strong cultural and socioeconomic exclusivity (Ho, 2011. p.616). Across
Sydney, nearly 50 per cent of public school students are from language
backgrounds other than English, but in private schools they form a minority
(Ho, 2011, p.606).
Helen Proctor, a lecturer
in the faculty of education and social work at the University of Sydney, is
arguing that parental choice, enrolment policies and geography are valid
reasons for this uneven distribution of diversity between private and public
schools. Generally parents tend to have a positive attitude towards
multiculturalism, but they are concerned about how other ethnicities than Anglo
influence their children in school. Because there is more multiculturalism in
public schools, some parents choose to enroll their children in private
schools. Enrolment policies also contribute to the uneven distribution of
diversity between private and public schools. Some private schools promote
Anglo-cultural exclusivity by demanding expensive school fees, giving direct
preference to children of former students or requiring students to be enrolled
within the year of their birth (Ho, 2011. p.608).
Students
have the opportunity to enroll in most of Sydney’s public schools, which
promotes an ideal setting for young people to engage across social and cultural
boundaries. There is plenty of common ground at multicultural public schools in
Sydney, and especially in western Sydney classrooms the wide range of spoken
languages promote an integrative school environment. The NSW public schools
where the majority of students have a language background other than English
are located in Sydney’s west and south-west. Ho argues that variations in
cultural diversity in schools differ geographically (2011, p.607). Western
Sydney has the lowest socioeconomic profile in Sydney and is more culturally
diverse than the rest of the city Sydney. It is considered the most
multicultural and integrated areas in Australia. At Auburn Girls High, only 15 of the 782 students enrolled
are Anglo-Australian despite there being a larger Anglo-Australian population
living in the suburb of Auburn. Anglo-Australians make up as little as 2 or 3
per cent of students at schools in Punchbowl, Canley Vale, Granville, Wiley
Park, Bankstown, Belmore and Cabramatta.
By
comparison, migrant-background students at nearby St Ignatius College in Lane
Cove make up just 8 per cent. Dr Ho said students had begun to jokingly play
"spot the whitey" at public schools (coincidently something I have played with my classmates, having
attended a western Sydney public high school), with the "white
flight" trend having accelerated over the past 20 years across Sydney. According to the NSW Secondary
Principals Council and the University of
Western Sydney, public schools in Australia have experienced white
flight to private and Catholic schools wherever there is a large presence of Aboriginal
and Middle Eastern students.
In
multicultural schools such as Auburn, the students from different language
backgrounds integrate with each other. They start with little or no English,
but after a while they become comfortable with the language. Since the students
got friends from different language backgrounds, English is the common link
through which they communicate and understand each other. In these
multicultural schools the students are surrounded by cultural difference, and
through communicating in English there is a big chance that they will develop
respect, acceptance and tolerance for each other. In this way ethnic diversity
in schools can be a benefit for students and lead to more opportunities than
challenges. On the other hand, schools with large proportions of students from
language backgrounds other than English tend to suffer academically. Many
students need extra assistance and resources which will have a negative impact
on schools in general.
References
The Sydney Morning Herald (12.06.2012). “The white bread playground: top private schools shun ethnic diversity”. Retrieved on 05.10.12 from http://www.smh.com.au/national/education/the-white-bread-playground-top-private-schools-shun-ethnic-diversity-20120611-20663.html
Minikel-Lacocque, J (2013). Racism, college and the power of words: Racial micro aggressions reconsidered. American Educational Research Journal, 50, P.436
My School Website http://www.myschool.edu.au
Christina Ho, ‘My School’ and others: Segregation and white flight, Australian Review of Public Affairs, May 2011
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