Getting good data from the HSC, apart from the Band 6 successes, has always been difficult for schools (”Game the system or lift the game?”, December 20). Roughly 30 per cent of HSC students attend university after their exams. What about the other 70 per cent? They rarely get an acknowledgement, yet they fill the many important jobs across our economy as well as attending a range of educational institutions that are not a university. As an educator over the last 40 years I have noted no acknowledgement to schools in disadvantaged areas as being successful at having students complete the HSC and then be supported into meaningful post-school options. It’s important to acknowledge academic success but it is also important to highlight how a school, particularly a government school, has been successful at helping its students become successful members of our community. The selective and private high schools are either hard to get into, hard to get to geographically or extremely expensive to attend. More open data from the Department of Education and the university sector as well as monitoring of where students end up five years after their HSC would be far more meaningful and provide a better understanding of how education contributes to student success post their HSC exams. Congratulations to all members of the class of 2020. Robert Mulas, Corlette
Illustration: Matt GoldingCredit:
Does the table of the top 150 schools really echo the total comparison of the academic
performance of all schools in this state? I suggest not and, in support quote two independent
schools in Sydney’s west where a majority of students opt for the IB with, as a rule, their less
academically inclined students undertaking studies for the HSC. These, and other like-schools
perform extraordinary well on a national and international scale. Is there no equivalent “top school” table for the IB? Obviously, with all state high schools only offering HSC studies, that’s where the Department’s academic emphasis will be directed and selective schools, as to be expected, dominate but, the HSC is not the only academic performance level available in the state and no such comparison can be definitive if performance in the IB is not available as is that for the HSC. John Moore, Strathfield
Prioritise parables
When I was young, Disney stories always had a moral (”Peppa or Pankhurst? Reading for good nights and better days”, December 20). Jacqueline Maley rightly points out we should stick with these books for our children, not be reading history books to them. After all, what are we really trying to teach them at this young age? Jenny Greenwood, Hunters Hill
