The sociocultural schism in Australian schooling

The trend in the ratio of enrolments in public to private schools in the past decade is well known. There is less knowledge of the curricular differences between such schools and the probable effects of these, educationally and socially, upon individual students and Australian society and culture collectively. A descriptive comparison is made of the curricular prescriptions of ten schools, five public and five private, in the Hobart area. The implications of these differences for levels of educational achievement, both individual and collective, are then examined in the light of some studies of achievement in Australia, the United States and the United Kingdom. Finally some alternative educational prescriptions are suggested as possible means to enhanced educational achievement and reduced division in Australian society.