Associate Professor Jae Jung, from UNSW’s school of education and a lead researcher in gifted education, said it was a “major overhaul to the current selection process” that better supports disadvantaged groups of gifted students to get access to selective classes.
Students who get places from disadvantaged groups need to perform within 10 per cent of the minimum requirements accepted from a general applicant. The school has about 930 students and more than 90 per cent have a language background other than English.
lucy_carroll It sounds good but only time will tell .
lucy_carroll every few years we see newspaper articles with complaining from the student body that they've made high school exams too hard and this isn't what they studied for. it's sort of interesting that these selection exams are moving in this direction deliberately.
lucy_carroll Is it meritocratic?
lucy_carroll And what happens when kids can't keep up? Lower standards and bullying.
lucy_carroll Depends how disadvantage is assessed. Students meeting eligibility for special provisions and Educational Access scheme mostly from private schools because they have the financial means to prove disadvantage.
lucy_carroll What about the public funding going to wealthy private schools?
lucy_carroll “Disadvantaged background” what the hell are you talking about? More grouping people into victim and oppressor. WE ARE NOT AMERICA! Stop trying to be the loony leftists from the states with their Marxist bs
lucy_carroll what a stupid policy
lucy_carroll as someone once said … i’d hate to think the cure for cancer is is in the brain of someone who couldn’t afford an education,or words to that effect !
lucy_carroll Is that so the disadvantaged can have an advantage over the ones with advantage?
lucy_carroll This is silly. Selective schools are good because students push each other, not because the teaching is better. Those bottom 20% will not benefit at all, and will ironically be more stigmatised.
lucy_carroll Concept based on the false premise that somehow these schools are superior to Government schools. A better outcome would be to stop Government funding to these over entitled schools. Direct this money to disadvantaged Government schools.
lucy_carroll What are we calling a disadvantaged background? It’s not that easy to do. Just income ? Ethnicity? Single parent? English as second language in home? Being born male? Unintended consequences predicted here.
lucy_carroll This policy sucks if you're selected into a highly competitive school purely to meet quota. The pressure to keep up can be crushing. Why not have programs to reduce disadvantages i.e. good curriculum and teachers, online resources that can compete with tutoring, cheap internet
lucy_carroll A fabulous initiative.