Public or private schools in Australia?
- Jun 2, 2025
- 2 min read
Like many parents, I’ve been quietly wrestling with a sense of unease. We’re told we have “choice” in education, yet for middle-class families—especially migrants like us who studied and worked hard—that choice often feels like a heavy burden.
Many of us made the decision to build our lives in Australia—not just for economic opportunity, but because we believed in the promise of a “fair go”. We wanted our children to grow up in a system that valued equity, personal growth, and education for a better world—not one narrowly focused on tests, rankings, and fees. But over time, it’s become harder to hold on to that hope.
We believe in education—not just academic success, but the humanity and purpose behind it. We want our children to grow, to belong, to become thoughtful people. We’ve lived the high-pressure test cultures. We know what it means to be ranked, streamed, and constantly measured—and we don’t want that cycle repeated.
And yet here, we watch as children in Year 3 are expected to perform at Year 5 levels to earn an “A”. School reports tell us how many months ahead (or behind) our kids are. Public schools group students by academic performance. Private schools select them based on scores and scholarships. The pressure starts early—and runs deep.
That’s why Professor Pasi Sahlberg’s reflection hits so hard. As a Finnish education expert who chose to send his children to a Sydney public school, he names what many of us feel: Australia’s school system has a structural flaw. It functions more like a marketplace than a public good, with growing inequality, overreliance on standardised testing, and widening gaps between public and private schools.
Read Professor Pasi Sahlberg’s article here
As a parent who grew up in China and later studied education in both systems, I often wonder what Australian education could be. Many of us do. But many of us also wonder: is the Australian school system losing that balance?
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