This article explores the impact of school environment and resources on student success. Reflecting on their own experience in a less-than-ideal high school in the 1990s, the author questions whether access to amenities like lush lawns, modern facilities, and renowned teachers would have made a significant difference in their academic achievements. The piece also touches upon the exorbitant fees charged by some private schools, highlighting the disparity in educational opportunities.
At my old high school, in the 1990s, there wasn’t a single blade of grass. Year 11 had a patch of dust that perhaps once hosted plant life. There may have been a few weeds peeking through brickwork. I remember mostly concrete, much of it damp.They weren’t ideal conditions. There was no room for sport during breaks, and adults worried the cold concrete would give us piles. But that patch of dust was the scene of many lively debates about life and politics by curious, clever students.
I’ve been privately told that at one school, half of the fee notices are sent directly to grandparents. School fees aren’t driven by the same market forces as real estate. Schools say they calculate fees based on staff costs , the cost of upkeep and capital works. But the grandparent contribution stretches schools’ expectations of what families can afford. If the perennial private school puzzle is how high fees will get before families are forced to vote with their feet, the answer, if grandparents are footing the bill, is a lot higher still.
I wonder, too, what this educational extravagance is teaching children.
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