6000 students. 1000 places. Competition for our best schools has never been tougher

Summary

Podcast Summary: The Morning Edition

Episode: "6000 students. 1000 places. Competition for our best schools has never been tougher"

Host: Benjamin Price (filling in for Samantha Selinger-Morris)
Guests: Jackson Graham (Education Reporter, The Age) & Christopher Harris (Education Editor, Sydney Morning Herald)
Air Date: June 16, 2026

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Episode Overview

This episode delves into the escalating competition for places at selective entry government schools for high-achieving students in Victoria and New South Wales. With record numbers of students sitting exams and only a fraction securing coveted spots, the discussion explores how this system became such a high-stakes, high-pressure event—and a major business. The conversation also covers the social equity implications, the rise of the tutoring industry, parental motivations, and the changing face of selective school populations.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. The Selective School Testing Surge

[01:10-02:25]

• Victoria: 6,400 students are sitting for about 1,000 Year 9 places at four Melbourne selective schools.

  • The entrant pool has grown sharply, up 700 since last year, and significantly more than a decade ago.
  • Students face a rigorous three-hour exam testing Year 8-level writing, quantitative reasoning, and mathematics.
  • The pressure is immense for 13-year-olds: "The test is a pretty daunting challenge...a huge demand for that." — Jackson Graham [01:10]

• New South Wales: Selective entry begins at Year 7, with 17,000 students vying for 4,300 places at 47 schools.

  • Tests are held for Year 6 students, and anxiety is high among both kids and parents, many of whom have spent years preparing.

2. Tension and Chaos at Exam Centres

[03:28-05:49]

• Notable chaos at recent test sittings:
  • In Canterbury, NSW, riot police were called to manage crowds after technical delays left thousands waiting.
  • "We just had chaotic scenes...completely beyond the ability of testing staff to manage." — Christopher Harris [05:02]
  • No reported arrests, but the anxiety among parents and logistical mismanagement highlighted the incredible seriousness and scale.

3. Structure of Selective Schooling

[06:04-07:54]

• Victoria: Four main selective entry schools, plus specialty options (e.g., science- or arts-focused).
• Comparison to NSW: Fewer places and schools compared to Sydney’s extensive selective network.
• Debate around expanding Victoria’s system, but concerns about deepening the divide in public education and "gutting" local schools of high-performing students.
  • "There's a lot to weigh up. You can't deepen the divide in our public schools." — Jackson Graham (via opposition spokesperson) [07:54]

4. Socioeconomic Advantage and Equity Concerns

[08:02-09:25]

• Majority of students at selective schools hail from highly educated, socioeconomically advantaged families.
  • Over 60% from top SES backgrounds at Melbourne’s four schools.
• Tutoring and exam preparation are out of reach for many, stacking the odds in favour of the well-resourced.
  • "Many students...able to sit the test come from backgrounds where they already have a lot of educational privilege." — Jackson Graham [09:25]

5. The Tutoring Industry

[10:01-11:48]

• Exam prep is big business: many students are tutored for 1-2 hours weekly, for at least a year, sometimes two.
  • In NSW, companies run mock "sorting" exams, even advising on which schools to target.
  • "Parents are spending thousands on tutoring...gives you an idea of how seriously parents take it." — Christopher Harris [10:55]

6. Parental Motivation and Academic Outcomes

[11:48-13:27]

• Parents are laser-focused on university entry, often starting in Year 6.
  • "They perceive that selective schools are the best vehicle to get the best year 12 results..." — Christopher Harris [11:54]
• Desire for a strong peer cohort to boost their child's academic ambitions.
  • "He wanted his child to be among that [high-performing cohort] simply to drive them..." — Jackson Graham [12:50]

7. Politics and Unintended Consequences

[13:42-14:42]

• Selective schools drain high achievers from local comprehensive schools, sparking debates and policy tweaks over decades.
  • Examples include gender equity measures and reserved spots for disadvantaged groups.

8. Changing Demographics

[15:12-16:37]

• Today’s selective schools are multicultural and aspirational, with many students from non-English-speaking backgrounds, including large numbers of Asian families.
  • "Most schools have a large proportion of students who come from a language background other than English..." — Christopher Harris [15:12]
  • At Melbourne High, 86% have a language background other than English.

9. Student Anxiety and School Experience

[16:37-19:12]

• Pressure: Significant, but some students find it manageable if balanced with other aspects of life.
  • "I need to balance my life...do all the things that kids otherwise would do." — Jackson Graham [16:46]
• Reality vs. Perception: Former students report a broad, rich experience including sport and extracurriculars.
  • "It offered all these extracurricular activities...far beyond academics." — Christopher Harris [17:32]
  • Still, there's an “arms race” to keep up via more tutoring once students arrive, sometimes resulting in disengaged, bored students in class.

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On the scale of exams:
  "There'll be 6,400 students, which is 700 more than last year...competition is tight because there's only about a thousand places."
  — Jackson Graham [01:10]

• On riot police at test centres:
  "We just had chaotic scenes...completely beyond the ability of testing staff to manage."
  — Christopher Harris [05:02]

• On equity concerns:
  "The criticism therefore goes that, well, we set up these select entry schools and many students who are able to sit the test come from backgrounds where they already have a lot of educational privilege..."
  — Jackson Graham [09:25]

• On the motivation behind selective schools:
  "Parents also want their child to succeed and they're thinking about university entry way back in year six..."
  — Christopher Harris [11:54]

• On the experience at selective schools:
  "We loved our time at school. It offered all these extracurricular activities...the actual experience is a lot more well rounded than what a lot of people will leave you to believe."
  — Christopher Harris (quoting students) [17:32]

• On the dilemma for policy makers:
  "You can't deepen the divide in our public schools. You can't gut local schools of their best students."
  — Opposition education spokesman, via Jackson Graham [07:54]

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Timestamps for Important Segments

• [01:10] – Surge in selective exam candidates in Victoria
• [02:37] – New South Wales selective school structure and entrance
• [03:51] – Riot police called during NSW selective test
• [06:04] – Structure and issues in Victoria’s selective system
• [08:13] – Socioeconomic issues and educational privilege
• [10:01] – Tutoring industry and test preparation
• [11:48] – Parental motivations
• [13:42] – Politics and educational equity
• [15:12] – Demographics at selective schools
• [16:46] – Student stress and school experience
• [17:32] – Student perspectives and reality versus perception

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Overall Tone

Conversational yet analytical, the episode balances interviews, data, and personal anecdotes to paint a picture of rising pressure and social stratification, while also giving voice to the positive aspects of the selective school experience from both students and parents.

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Summary Takeaway

Selective entry schools in Victoria and New South Wales have never been more competitive, driving a massive, costly test-prep industry and intensifying pressure on students. While the system opens opportunities for ambitious families—many from migrant backgrounds—it comes at the cost of equity and places significant burdens on children. Policymakers face tough questions about access, fairness, and the broader impact on public education. Yet, those who make it often report a rich and rewarding school experience that goes well beyond mere test scores.

Transcript

[A]

This weekend, thousands of teenagers will sit the entry exam for one of four select entry government schools for high achieving students in Victoria. It's a nerve wracking experience and the stakes are high. Many students will miss out on a place in New South Wales. Competition is also fierce for a spot at select entry schools. Students in both states spend countless hours preparing for the exams. I'm Benjamin Price filling in for Samantha Sellinger Morris and this is the Morning Edition. So attention please and eyes up front. Today, age education reporter Jackson Graham and Sydney Morning Herald education editor Christopher Harris explain how select entry education became such a big deal and such big business. It's Wednesday, June 17, Jackson. Christopher, it's really great to have you on the podcast today. Jackson, why don't you take us through what's going to be happening this Saturday?

[B]

All right. Well, several thousand students will sit the select entry exam in venues like our race courses and the exhibition buildings in Melbourne. A select entry exam is basically a three hour long exam for students in Melbourne at a Year 8 level to try to get into Year 9 at a school that will only let them in based on their academic results. The test is a pretty daunting challenge for any 13 year old to take. It involves writing, quantitative reasoning and mathematics and test them at all sorts of things that they should have otherwise learned in their schooling up to about a Year 8 level. This year there'll be 6,400 students, which is 700 more than last year. People I spoke to who took the exam in 2016 say there are thousands more people sitting the exam than a decade ago. So many of them are actually pretty worried that, you know, if it was them sitting their test today, the competition is so steep that they might not actually get in. This trend has been upwards obviously for the last couple of years and there has been a big acceleration this year. So the competition is tight because there's only about a thousand places at the schools for students to get into. So yeah, there's a huge demand for that.

[A]

So the system starts in year nine in Victoria for selective entry schools, but it's not quite the same in New South Wales, is it? Christopher, can you help us understand how the system works there?

[C]

It's a very different landscape in New South Wales. For starters, students enter into a selective school in year seven. There's 47 fully and partially selective schools across the state, including the likes of North Sydney Boys, James Bruce and Sydney Boys and Sydney Girls. Our year six students sat the entry test a couple of months ago. There were about 17,000 students competed for 4,300 places, I went along to North Sydney Girls, where students were sitting the test and you could see as they were walking in with their parents, they were almost sort of. Their faces were white with. With nerves. Because a lot of parents have been prepping those students for those tests for, if not a year or more, two years or more in coaching colleges and at home.

[A]

I mean, this sounds like really serious business, doesn't it? And I was quite surprised to read that last year the riot police had to be called in to the exam venue in Canterbury in New South Wales. And police also attended the venue at Randwick to kind of manage the throngs of people. Can you just tell us what the hell was going on there?

[C]

Essentially what had happened is the New South Wales government had. They wanted the students to sit the test online. So as part of that they outsourced it to a private company called Janison, who wanted the students to sit the tests at these mega testing centres across Sydney. And essentially, in addition to the selective schools test in New South Wales, you can also sit the Opportunity Class test, which is. It's a class in prison primary schools in year five and six and they do like advanced. It's for gifted kids, supposedly. And Jennison were going to test those students in the morning and then test the selective kids in the afternoon. And there were a few technical issues. There were delays with the morning session so those parents didn't leave immediately with the students. They were standing around waiting to collect them. And then all the selective parents turn up really early because they're worried about this test that they've been studying for years for. They were. They want to make sure they get there on time. They've travelled across Sydney anyway, so you get way more people in these spots than you're meant to.

[A]

There was frustration today in Canterbury with thousands of parents and primary school students left waiting for hours at a selective school testing session.

[C]

These people, these staff working that have been employed by Jennison, they kind of lose control of the situation. Just tell me one thing, how hard it is to organize this event when we can organize Olympic Commonwealth Games. And we just had chaotic scenes that was completely beyond the ability of testing staff to manage. And they had to call in police to direct parents to leave.

[A]

With such a large number of people stuck, the riot squad was called to manage the crowd.

[B]

I thought, you know, you need the police to come in and help you.

[A]

And did the police have to make any arrests?

[C]

No reported arrests, but I think no arrests.

[A]

Okay, good. So, Jackson, can you Just tell us a bit about how the system is structured in Victoria. For decades there was only two selective entry schools. But now there are more, aren't there? So can you just take us through that?

[B]

Yeah. So there are four in Melbourne. They include Melbourne High, McRobinson Girls High School, Nossell High School and Susan Corey High School. These are the schools where you're accepted into year nine and they're traditional select entry schools. Then we also have the John Monash Science School, which is students enter that through a different entry test, which is obviously STEM based for year 10. And we have the Victorian College of the Arts Secondary School where students have to audition. So this is far fewer than Sydney has. Given the demand for getting into these schools. There's been plenty of chatter about whether or not we should have more select entry schools in Victoria. For now, though, most experts sort of warn against this in Victoria. Really looking to Sydney as a case study, and the criticism is that select entry education leads to enrolment dominated by students who are already advantaged. My colleague Alex Crowe has actually done some good reporting on this. She found more than 60% of all students enrolled in Melbourne's four select entry schools are from top socioeconomically advantaged backgrounds. That's according to her analysis of my school's data. I asked the government whether they had any plans for more select schools, select entry schools yesterday. They didn't actually respond. But when I asked the opposition education spokesman, Brad Roswell, he said any government that wants the best for students in the state should be looking at how they can better manage select entry. He basically told me that whether it's more places or more select entry schools, every option that lifts standards should be on the table. However, he also looks to Sydney as an example of potentially a case study to learn from. He points out that a small portion of students in select entry schools come from the most disadvantaged backgrounds in New South Wales. So basically he says there's a lot to weigh up. You can't deepen the divide in our public schools. You can't gut local schools of their best students. So I'm sure, yeah, they're sort of open to thinking about what the solutions look like, but they're certainly not. There's not any simple solutions.

[A]

So tell me, what is the basis of that criticism? That Victoria's select entry school system advantages kids from better socioeconomic backgrounds?

[B]

Yeah, I think that really goes to the heart of just how intertwined socioeconomic advantage is with education. They're very hard things to separate. Naplan testing is a great example of that. And really, it doesn't necessarily come down to wealth necessarily. What it comes down to, at least the people behind the Naplan testing would tell us, is how educated your parents are. Unfortunately, you know, students who have parents who are also highly educated, who might have, you know, high levels of tertiary education are far more likely to exceed in academic settings than peers that, that aren't in that situation. So it's not necessarily all, you know, income based. And yeah, I think the criticism therefore goes that, well, we set up these select entry schools and many students who are able to sit the test come from backgrounds where they already have a lot of educational privilege in their house. And also, you know, add on top of things that change the equity equation, such as tutoring and preparing for the test over years, potentially, you know, all of these things add in a level of inequity into the selection process

[A]

after the break.

[C]

The parents also want their child to succeed and they're thinking about university entry way back in year six. And they perceive that selective schools are the best for vehicle to get the best year 12 results and give their child the best chance of succeeding.

[A]

So can you talk a little bit more about that preparation that a lot of families and students do for these tests in terms of tutoring and that kind of thing? What do they do?

[B]

Yeah, so I spoke to a couple of tutors last week and most of them said basically students are preparing for at least a year for these tests. So when the tutors take people on board, they're basically saying, all right, this is going to be 12 months of extra work per week. And often it's more than an hour, two hours of work basically that they would be doing on top of their schoolwork. They, the tutors themselves acknowledge this is a lot for a 13 year old. It's a lot of pressure. You know, many school students would obviously think back to their year 12 exams as being a time of a lot of pressure. Well, you know, you have to think that, that this sort of pressure is really being applied to a 13 year old to get into a highly competitive school.

[A]

Jackson, if that's a lot of pressure for a child in year eight, I can't imagine what it would be like for a child in grade five. Is it a similar preparation process that you're picking up Christopher in New South Wales, or does it work differently somehow?

[C]

Well, yes, students are preparing for, you know, a couple of years. Parents are spending, you know, thousands on tutoring. We also have companies that provide this. They have a mock test every year and it kind of works like a bit of students will sit that test and sort of similar to like sort of the Harry Potter sorting hat, the company will actually tell them which schools that they should target when they're selecting their three preferences so as they don't overshoot and be overly ambitious and get something they've got no hope of. But these mock exams with thousands of students conducted by some private companies each year give you as a parent an idea of where your child sits on the bell curve of selective school results before you actually sit the test. So that gives you an idea of, you know, how big the tutoring industry is and how seriously parents take it.

[A]

Christopher, why do parents want to get their children into these schools so badly?

[C]

Well, I think, well, every year when we cover our year 12 HSC results, we go and speak to a lot of students and ask them, you know, what do you want to do? And you know, one of the key themes I take away from that is that a lot of students, they want to get into either medicine or law. And the thinking I take away from that is the parents also want their child to succeed and they're thinking about university entry way back in year six and they perceive that selective schools are the best vehicle to get the best year 12 results and give their child the best chance of succeeding. So it's purely academic outcomes is what's driving the selective school decision in the first place.

[A]

Jackson, is it the same thing in Melbourne? The parents also wanting the best academic outcome for their children by trying to get them into these schools?

[B]

Absolutely. I agree with Chris there in that, you know, the career outcome and the higher educational outcome is what parents very much have front of mind. One parent I spoke to told me basically that really his child joining a select entry school was about being involved in a cohort that was going to be considered strong. So basically if there's a high performing cohort of students, he wanted his child to be among that simply to drive them and to ensure, I suppose, that that stud grades were lifted by the cohort as much as by, you know, their own ambition.

[A]

Now, the whole system can be a little bit political, can't it? And I'm just wanting to know a bit more about how that works in New South Wales. Christopher, I mean, can you just go through a bit more about some of the concerns that experts have raised about the system?

[C]

Well, it is very political and I guess over the past 50 years we've had governments have tried to tinker with the system or wind back the system. They've always found resistance. And I guess the central problem some people outside of the selective school system have is that a these schools are taking away really smart students from local comprehensive schools, which is leaving them at a disadvantage. So over the years we had big changes in the 1980s which sought to reduce the number of selective schools. Then in the 1990s, a new state government expanded selective school places with the introduction of partially selective school streams. And in comprehensive high schools, the latest changes a couple of years ago has been introducing the gender equity model which preserved 50% of places in co ed schools for girls. And before that we had the equity placement model which preserved 20% of spots for students from certain equity groups.

[A]

What I'm interested in here as well is what do these schools say about us about Australian society more generally? I mean, my parents went to these selective entry schools and they sort of came in, in this wa of Jewish migration in the, in the 50s and 60s when a lot of kids at these schools were from poor Jewish but aspirational families. Can you both take us through who actually attends these schools and tell us a bit more about their makeup?

[C]

Well, if we look at the Acara data on selective schools, most schools have a large proportion of students who come from a language background other than English. And if you look at academics like Christina Ho at uts, she writes a lot about how these schools are really seen as a haven for a lot of Asian families who want to get ahead. And they like the schools, they like the selective tests because it mirrors the academic testing that is a big feature of the Asian education system that they might come from.

[A]

Is it broadly similar in Melbourne, Jackson?

[B]

Yes. Well, if you look at Melbourne High as one example, 86% of students who attend Melbourne High have a language background other than English. And it's similar at some of the other select entry schools too, I think. Yeah, you know, it's broadly a similar thinking as what you described in with your own parents. I think, Ben, today where the western suburbs has some highly aspirational families who have moved here from Asia and other areas. And basically, yeah, you know, they see this as a ticket into a different life. I think they see the sacrifice put in at an early age, you know, from, in those early teen days as being important to setting the child up to having a better life.

[A]

I'm interested in anxiety for the child and how much pressure these tests place on the child. How stressful do you reckon it is?

[B]

Yeah, I think it's extremely stressful for these young students. I think they're put under a lot of expectations. Some of it sometimes is about, you know, if they got in, it would be a really proud moment for not only them, but for their family as well. And they feel that burden. I think in some ways, I think the stress isn't necessarily a bad thing as long as they can manage that well. And some of the students I did speak to, they acknowledged that. They said, well, I need to balance my life. I need to be spending time really working hard and being disciplined around what I need to learn for this test. But I also need to spend time playing sport and watching TV and doing all the things that kids otherwise would do. So I think, I think they're. But I also think they're very conscious of that, of striking that balance and needing that balance.

[C]

I did text a few students who've graduated in the past couple of years from fully selective schools and say, like, hey, what did you actually think about it? And they said, well, yeah, they said, we loved our time at school. It offered all these extracurricular activities. We were with other students who are of a similar mindset. But they said it went far beyond academics. We'd had all these sporting opportunities, all these extracurricular activities. We really enjoyed it. The perception. And they said, like a lot of people like to hate on selective schools, but they said, you know, the actual experience is a lot more well rounded than what a lot of people will leave you to believe.

[A]

So there's a perception there that it's all about academics. But in fact, from the people you've been speaking to, students get a much more rounded educational experience than just focusing on literacy and numeracy in science, for example.

[C]

And that's not to say that it isn't a hyper competitive environment. I've spoken to principals at selective schools and they said, like, one of the big problems we have is, you know, you think students get tutoring before the test. Once they get here, the parents are thinking, we've got to keep, we've got to do tutoring to keep up. And then this creates big problems. The principals say we've essentially got students who have covered the year 7 maths before they've got here. It creates very bored students who are sitting in class. Why? They want students to have all these other opportunities available to them and do sport and things like that after school, not sit inside a coaching college. So there is definitely a problem there. But, you know, students themselves say these schools are a lot more than what people might think.

[A]

Well, I think that's a really good place to wrap it up. Thanks very much. For your time, Christopher.

[C]

Thanks, Benjamin.

[A]

Thank you too, Jackson.

[B]

Thanks, Bedram.

[A]

And hopefully we don't need the riot police at the exam at Caulfield Racecourse on Saturday. In other news today, Grilled is facing a lawsuit from the consumer watchdog, which claims the burger chain misled customers by overstating the extent of donations to a tree planting campaign. One Nation leader Pauline Hanson will make her debut at the Press Club in Canberra today. And the Reserve bank has kept interest rates on hold for the first time this year. For these stories and more, go to our websites theage.com au or smh.com Today's episode was produced by Chee Wong. Our executive producer is Tammy Mills, and our podcasts are overseen by Lisa Muxworthy and Tom McKendrick. If you like our show, follow the Morning Edition and leave a review for us on Spotify or Apple. Thanks for listening.