PUBLICISING school achievement is much in evidence in private school circles in Australia, where funding arrangements increasingly favour open competition and educational choice.
In one sense this can be a wonderful celebratory thing, supportive of school spirit and building a sense of pride in educational opportunity and sporting achievement.
However, in the current school funding context this publicity also makes it increasingly difficult for Catholic authorities to enact inclusive policies supportive of the systemic common good.
Parents far too often put the individual advantage of their children above the benefit that schools have to offer by widening their curriculum offerings and enrolling children from a broad range of social and cultural backgrounds.
Because serving the common good, and categorically not positional advantage, is the foundation of the Church’s teaching on the purpose of the Catholic school, it is my expectation as a Catholic parent and an inclusive educator that Catholic schools do all in their power to support this ethic.
For instance, much more could be done by some school owners about the contradiction of operating schools that clearly cater separately for the rich and the poor, the clever and those in need of special help – a mistaken practice not sustained by gospel values as well as from contemporary educational research, but much in evidence in some Catholic schools.
Quite recently the Queensland Catholic Education Commission declined to participate in the feeding frenzy promoted by sections of the media in relation to publicising individual school OP scores.
It would be good to hear from the commission or any other Catholic authority as to why Catholic school performance is much more than a matter of publicising OP scores.
DR MICHAEL FURTADO
Toowoomba, Qld
