As you may have heard, the NSW government is planning to overhaul the selective school and OC class admission process and reserve 20% of the places for students from disadvantaged backgrounds. I and many other people in the community strongly believe this is unjust in procedure and unfair in result.

First of all, it is extremely unjust to the general public, especially those taking the OC and Selective exams this year and also those who plan to take these exams in the future.  This critical policy change is lacking a wide range of stakeholder consultation, and it has been retrospectively implemented on the students who have already sat the Selective and OC exams this year. It is extremely unjust to the 30,000 families this year who deserved to be informed of this policy before making decisions about their children’s future. A good and fair educational policy must be developed in consultation with education experts, the schools and the general public. We all know education is a primary right for each citizen and permanent resident in Australia. However, the DoE and the Minister of Education, Sarah Mitchell has failed to engage with the general public and keep them informed about the implementation and timing of this policy. It is unacceptable for an untransparent and unjust policy to be implemented on such short notice.

Secondly, it is unfair to the students who would be potentially selected into the OC and Selective schools. No-one has a choice about which family they are born into, and their right to strive for a better education should not be denied just because they are born into a particular household. Moreover, no-one can guarantee that their family will be able to maintain the same amount of earnings for six years, and even if this were possible, they still have a right to choose between various forms of education – be that public, selective or private. Obviously, the students who would potentially be selected into OC and Selective schools do not come from very wealthy families, or otherwise they would be attending expensive private schools. How else are these students meant to strive for better education for themselves if they cannot enter a selective school through hard work? 

I firmly believe that we need to support the disadvantaged communities and students, but this quota is not the right solution. The government should set up more Selective and OC classes in lower socio-economic areas, and invest more funding into the public schools in those areas. It is the responsibility of the DoE and the government to create a system to help both all students and communities access better education opportunities. However, the DoE and the Minister have failed to create such a system, and instead they have shrugged off their accountability and placed that burden on regular, working-class students and families. 

This sudden change is far too hasty and comes as a great shock to students and parents. As such, I hope you can pass on our concerns to the government and lobby them against the enforcement of this policy, to consult the general public's opinion and to invest public funding into schools in disadvantaged areas as a means of benefitting all students across NSW. Instead of reserving 20% of the places, I believe the government should increase student cohorts, of the current Selective and Opportunity Classes, by 20% to fulfil the needs of the disadvantaged students.

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