Selective schools forced to adopt gender quotas as boys dominate enrolments

Selective schools in Australia’s two most populous states have been forced to bring in gender quotas after more than a decade or male-dominated enrolments.

In Victoria, Suzanne Cory High School in Werribee and Nossal High School in Berwick in Melbourne’s east will each reach “gender parity” next year due to government-imposed gender quotas, while in NSW all 51 selective schools will be forced to enrol equal numbers of boys and girls under a similar overhaul.

Victoria’s Labor government required both selective-entry schools to enrol an equal number of boys and girls in Year 9 in 2024 after males consistently outnumbered females – by a ratio of 58-42 in 2023 – and will achieve gender parity in 2027 as that cohort enters Year 12.

The institutes are the only two co-educational select-entry high schools among four such facilities in the state, with around 1,000 places allocated each year for Year 9 entry across all four schools, and students selected via a centralised process that includes a 2.5-hour entrance exam.

Another Melbourne school, the highly sought-after John Monash Science School, has almost maintained a mainly male cohort since its inauguration 17 years ago and is exempt from the measure, but is now under pressure to introduce gender quotas.

Micaela Drieberg, chief executive at gender equity peak body Gender Equity Victoria, told The Age quotas were needed to ensure “gender equality”.

“All students should have equal opportunities,” she said.

“A consistent policy that focuses on gender representation across all select entry schools would ensure the students of today have equal opportunities, as well as the students of tomorrow.

“If we don’t have these things in place, and if we take our foot off the pedal, we can easily go backwards.”

But Principal Andrew Chisholm said John Monash Science School was a specialist selective-entry school rather than a cross-discipline school like Suzanne Cory High and Nossal High.

“We’re really inclusive, and we want gender balance. But sometimes having more guidelines actually makes it worse because you’re taking away the freedom of the school and to choose the people who are most appropriate to be at a science school,” Mr Chisholm said.

Melbourne University professor of history and philosophy of science Cordelia Fine also warned that quotas could backfire.

“In the case of selective schools, there is a cost both to boys who would otherwise have been offered a place, and to girls who may be stigmatised as needing a lower bar to gain entry,” she said.

Victoria’s school-based gender-equity program comes as part of a broader effort by the state government to institute gender equity and social equality.

As part of its Our Equal State plan, the Victorian government aims to implement measures including “gender parity on Victorian boards and courts” and to “explore ways to address age-based discrimination and ableism for women and gender diverse people”.

In NSW, the gender ratio in selective high schools stands at 58% boys and 42% girls despite years of government efforts to try to halt a decline in girls applying and accepting offers.

NSW Education Department deputy secretary Martin Graham said last year that quotas were needed because previous efforts to achieve a gender balance by revamping entry tests to place less emphasis on maths had failed to reverse the trend,

Fort Street High principal Juliette McMurray said decreasing female enrolments at the school, where two-thirds of students are boys, was “perplexing”, but that an obvious gender disparity could be off-putting for girls.

She told The Sydney Morning Herald parents informed her that girls were turning down places in favour of private school scholarships, and because of a perception “there is a lack of arts” at selective schools or too much of a maths and science focus.

The quotas come amid a broader education crisis, with an international assessment showing that the gulf in maths results among Australian boys and girls is among the worst in the world, and a maths and science study which found that Australian girls were the second-worst performers out of 57 participating countries.

Header image: Students at Nossal High School (Victorian government).

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