Twenty vacancies to fill — girls only need apply
Deborah Gough
June 24, 2007WANTED: 20 girls to complete VCE in 2008 at a school with 1200 boys. Toilets, uniform, study room and one female mentor provided.
It’s the pitch of St Bernard’s College, Essendon, to win a small number of girls into its all-boys Catholic school and it has riled the local all-girl schools.
They have described the move as, at best, “ridiculous and tokenistic”, and, at worst, an “intellectual raid” on other schools that turned girls into a “commodity” in the education market.
The Essendon college’s move is the most recent example of the clambering to enrol girls and comes on the back of St Michael’s Grammar School’s exemption from the Equal Opportunity Act this month that enables it to favour girl enrolments over boys to even its ratio until 2010.
It also follows a furore last year when Haileybury College poached girls from other schools.
April Honeyman, principal of all-girls Catholic school St Columba’s College, said the move was opportunistic and questioned why the school did not take more boys instead.
“There are more than 200 boys in year 12 at St Bernard’s and to have just 20 girls with a study room, uniform and one mentor turns it into Big Brother for those girls. Boys watching their every move,” Ms Honeyman said.
“It is well documented that girls have higher ENTER scores at VCE level, stay longer at school and work harder at school. Some people also believe they have a civilising and role modelling effect on young men, but I don’t see much in (St Bernard’s) offer for girls.
“It seems to be all about what it can offer the boys — it is definitely an intellectual raid,” she said.
Ms Honeyman said it was telling that nearly all of the recent conversions from single-sex to co-education had been made by all-boys schools.
Ave Maria College principal Olwen Bell described St Bernard’s move as “ridiculous” and “tokenistic”. “You have to ask yourself who benefits from this particular proposal and in no sense do you come away believing girls benefit,” Ms Bell said.
“Year 12 is when girls start to step up and take leadership roles in a secure environment and to suddenly be in a new school where they are a little branch of a much bigger school and something of an oddity — I just think that opportunity for leadership would be lost for those girls.”
St Bernard’s College principal Frank FitzGerald said the move was designed to help with year 11 and 12 enrolments and also in response to parents asking whether daughters might also be able to attend St Bernard’s.
As a recent former employee of the catholic relgious congregation that runs St Bernard’s I don’t think I ever heard about any speculation about this happening. Trust old Frankie Fitz to make the decision out on his own bat.
Ironically enough, as a former student of St Bernard’s I think it will be a generally positive move. There is so much internal segregation between students that introducing 20 girls to the college will most likely go unnoticed.
