6 days ago
22
May 10, 2026 — 5:00am
The title of Jane Caro’s new book is a dead giveaway – Rich Kid Poor Kid. Let me guess; the “rich kids” go to private schools and the “poor kids” go to public schools? Let’s dispel that myth right away. Independent schools have been the fastest-growing sector in NSW since 2000, enrolling 108,380 of the 162,295 additional students in all NSW schools in that time. That’s two in every three new students over the past 26 years being enrolled in an independent school. They can’t all be “rich kids”.
The strongest enrolment growth has been in independent schools charging less than $5000 per year – typically, Islamic, Adventist, Christian and secular schools serving low to middle-income families in western Sydney and regional NSW.
Caro claims “every middle-class kid who leaves the public system increases the ratio of needier students”. But it’s not “middle-class kids” who are leaving government schools. For the past 26 years, the biggest segment of new students in NSW independent schools has been children from lower-than-average-income families entering low-fee schools in western Sydney.
For example, our sector has 23,415 students in Islamic schools; 30 years ago, most of those children would have been in government schools. This also dispels Caro’s claim that “there is precisely no evidence” that public funding puts downward pressure on fees. How then is it possible for 71 per cent of NSW independent schools to charge fees of less than $10,000 a year when the average cost of educating a child in Australia has reached $22,185 a year, according to the latest data (2023-24)?
There are so many other generalisations and misrepresentations in Ms Caro’s piece, it’s as though she’s not seen an Independent school since the introduction of colour television. Suburban and regional working families now choose from a range of affordable faith and non-faith schools across NSW that reflect their values and children’s needs.
Ms Caro claims that Australia’s school system has segregated children along class and religious lines. There are no geographic or religious restrictions in the independent sector. I invite Ms Caro to visit one of the many Christian and Anglican schools which enrol high proportions of children from other faith and no faith backgrounds.
One Christian school principal in western Sydney told me recently that only 40 per cent of his students were from Christian families; most were from Hindu, Muslim, Buddhist and other backgrounds, and were drawn to the school for its pastoral values and caring environment. I also invite her to visit a Muslim school where children are united by a common faith but their classmates’ backgrounds are African, Asian, European or Middle Eastern.
Ms Caro also claims, without evidence, that non-government schools are allowed to refuse students with complex educational needs. Wrong again. It’s a little known fact that 23 per cent of independent school students have a disability (compared with 27 per cent in government schools), and over 90 per cent of those students are in mainstream independent school settings. Furthermore, of all the students in NSW enrolled in a special school or a Special Assistance School, 52 per cent are enrolled in independent schools, including some who were previously in government schools.
Ms Caro laments Australia’s school system for “putting girls with girls and boys with boys”; 83 per cent of independent schools are co-ed, and almost two-thirds are combined primary/secondary schools. She also cites international comparisons that ignore fundamental historic and structural differences. In Australia, non-government schools are not a parallel or residual system operating outside compulsory education; they have operated for 200 years and are embedded into the state and national school systems.
Catholic and Independent schools educate almost 39 per cent of all NSW students, are subject to state and national curriculum and regulatory requirements and serve large, diverse communities across metropolitan, suburban and regional areas. Australia cannot be compared with countries where non-government schooling has always been a niche offering.
Look, I get it; Ms Caro has a new book to sell. But her arguments against non-government schools have hardly changed in decades, whereas Independent schools have changed forever. Your typical Independent school is now more likely to be a low-fee, culturally diverse school in western Sydney educating children with diverse learning needs from lower-than-average-income families.
Margery Evans is chief executive of Independent Schools NSW
