Wealth, not faith drives most Australian students to religious schools

The Australian Schools and the Common Good report, released on Wednesday, said it was widely held that since the 1980s, “the ideology of neoliberalism has redefined education policy and the subsequent educational purposes within Australian schooling”.

“Within this view, education’s main function is to improve social mobility and an individual’s economic or psychological wellbeing,” it said.

“Attachments and obligations to neighbour, community, city or nation are downplayed. Common good is understood as the sum of the private goods of discrete individuals.”

The report was commissioned by a group of six Christian school associations.

Co-author Dr Darren Iselin said the study also sought to analyse how education had influenced people’s personal relationships, ability to deal with problems in life and attitudes towards volunteering and giving.

“There’s an important conversation around privatisation and self-interest that has taken place [in society] and let’s face it, Christian schools and the non-government sector have been the beneficiaries of that, but we were really wanting to explore a more holistic narrative,” Dr Iselin said.

Just 22 per cent of Catholic school graduates and 20 per cent of independent school graduates grew up in religious families, compared with 13 per cent of government school graduates, the survey found.

This compared with 43 per cent of graduates from the six Christian school associations that commissioned the research.

“Whilst there can be an emphasis in [non-government] schools around an ethos of spiritual and religious values, that doesn’t necessarily mean that it translates to that in later life,” Dr Iselin said.

“Some of the selection processes around school choice certainly come down to providing that upward mobility.”

The report found a majority of graduates from all school sectors had donated to a charity or cause in the past year, but that volunteering rates were much lower.

It also found a significant gap in income and educational attainment between city and regional dwellers, although this gap was smallest among government school graduates.

These findings raise concerns about advantage and equity that “threaten social ties across the nation”, the report argued.

Communications officer Hella Ibrahim went to a mix of government and religious schools, including a Catholic primary and two private Islamic schools.

“While I really liked the school I completed VCE at, I don’t think it did set me up for success,” Ms Ibrahim said.

Instead it came down to the varying commitment levels of her teachers. She recalls one brilliant English literature teacher, who inspired her to high marks, and another teacher who didn’t even bother to check her homework, to the point that she stopped bothering to do it.

“Teacher attitudes matter,” Ms Ibrahim said.

With Hannah Schauder