Private schools used for cultural quarantine

[Phteven]

Thoughts?

Private schools used for cultural quarantine

Bianca Hall March 07, 2012
The research shows Australian-born parents in areas with high migrant populations were more likely to send their children to private schools.

PARENTS are using private schools to segregate their children from unfamiliar cultures, new research shows.

An academic paper published in The Australian Economic Review shows Australian-born parents in areas with high migrant populations are more likely to send their children to private schools than Australian-born parents in areas with lower immigrant rates.

First-generation migrants in areas where there are more migrant children of the same ethnic background are less likely to send their children to private schools.

The paper, by Australian National University fellow Astghik Mavisakalyan, shows the trend is highest among secondary students.

Dr Mavisakalyan found that at primary school, a 10 per cent increase in the proportion of immigrants increased the probability of Australian-born children attending private schools by 3.5 percentage points. This compared with 6.45 percentage points at the secondary-school level.

She said the findings were statistically significant, adding: ''Overall, the results suggest the possibility of a flight from unfamiliar cultures in the Australian school system.

''I considered cultural differences between natives and immigrants based on shared language and ethnic background [and] in both cases, it appears that the private-school attendance of native-born Australians increases in response to immigrants from distant cultures.''

Dr Mavisakalyan used 2001 census data for her work, which warned that the trend could lead to school segregation.

The recent government-commissioned Gonski review of school funding found a lack of English proficiency was one of five factors that significantly affected students' performances.

A spokeswoman for Multicultural Affairs Minister Kate Lundy said: ''Parents select a school for a variety of different reasons and they are increasingly making informed choices using the My School website.''


http://m.theage.com.au/victoria/priv...306-1uieg.html

I guess it's effective in quarantining immigrant children from racists too....

In relation to the last line about people making informed choices based on the MySchool website, I don't think people are making informed choices based on the MySchool website. They are making choices that are informed by the very limited information on the MySchool website. The MySchool website and NAPLAN don't measure a whole host of things that I consider important in a school.