“While this scheme has been in place for two entry cohorts,it is pleasing to see an increasing number of students entering selective high schools under the Equity Placement Model,” she said.

Australian Tutoring Association chief executive Mohan Dhall said there should have been an increase in the percentage of students from disadvantaged backgrounds showing up in selective schools in the past two years.

“If two years have had the benefit of the model,then you would expect a third of the target to be achieved,” he said,given high schools have six year groups.

He urged the government to consider other measures,such as extending the leeway beyond the 10 per cent margin for disadvantaged primary school students,to proactive measures such as providing free academic coaching to children whose families could not afford it,to level the playing field for the selective school test.

“If someone like Eddie Woo were to be paid by the department to run coaching classes,then suddenly you would have an equally high-profile coach,which could compete with the coaching college sector and reduce inequity,” he said.

University of NSW gifted education expert Dr Geraldine Townsend called for more years of data to see if the program was working,but said tutoring was not necessary to be successful in the test afterit was overhauled in 2021 to be less coachable.

“There needs to be an understanding that you don’t need to be coached,” she said.

Townsend said the students admitted under the equity model had already done well in school.

“Those students,to my knowledge,are doing really well. Many of them aren’t coached,and they’re actually there because they have the ability to be there,” she said.

UTS academic Christina Ho, who has studied the make-up of selective schools,said a flood of students from target equity groups may not have eventuated as they may not be applying in the first place.

“Some families just don’t think that selective schooling is for them – and even if they do,they’re not really able to give the kids the preparation for them to succeed,” she said.

She said that despite the test being designed to be less coachable,the hours of tutoring that migrant families often paid for in the months and years ahead of the test meant their children were at an advantage.

“I don’t think they’re gaming the system – they’re following the rules that were not set up by them,” she said.

Her research has previously found that,due to Australia’s skilled migration program,children in selective schools were more likely to have highly educated parents with professional jobs,placing them in the top socio-educational quartile.

“The more practice you do for a test,the more familiar you are with test questions and the faster you will be … It works because our education system rewards competition,” she said.

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