An American has hit out at Australia’s hidden “class system” by targeting elite private schools, which he says have created a sense of “snobbery” and privilege.
John Pabon, a sustainability consultant who previously worked at the United Nations, compared the situation to India’s 3,000-year-old caste system, which sets limits on a person’s career and ambitions based solely on their family history. .
“Australians, can someone help me understand this false class system created by private schools that has a stranglehold on people here?” Mr Pabón said.
“For a country that prides itself on giving everyone a fair chance, it seems contradictory that a caste system has been artificially created.”
His comments on TikTok come as one of Australia’s most prestigious private schools, Cranbrook College in Sydney’s eastern suburbs, was rocked by an ABC Four Corners investigation.
The program exposed allegations by former staff of a “toxic culture” at the school which charges more than $40,000 in fees from Year 11 and 12 students.
John Pabón (pictured) has criticized elite private schools in Australia which he says create a hidden class system.
Pabón said he experienced first-hand the “snobbery” of Australians who were once former students of a private school.
He said he was at a meeting recently when a person in his 60s kept saying several times that he had gone to the private school Scotch College in Melbourne.
Pabón said the “mind-blowing conversation” left him wondering why some Australians place such a premium on receiving a private school education.
Pabón compared Australian private schools to Ivy League universities in the United States, such as Harvard, famous for its research programs, which are highly regarded among Americans.
“We have people talking about going to NYU (New York University) or Yale, but that’s an elite university that produces scientists, not some random Melbourne high school that produces rowers,” he said.
Pabón said he could not understand the importance of obtaining a secondary education at an elite private school (pictured, Cranbrook College in Sydney).
Pabón pleaded with Australians to explain why private schools are so highly regarded and the history behind them in Australia.
Thousands of social media users flooded the video with comments, explaining that those who attended private schools often came from wealthy Australian families.
“It’s kind of a way for people to identify generational wealth in their peers and also strong alumni networks,” one user said.
“Private school students tend to be more successful, not because of the quality of their education, but because of nepotism after leaving school,” another user wrote.
Others defended private schools as places that provide opportunities for students long after they leave school grounds.
“As someone who attended an elite private school, the networking and opportunities from having attended that school last a lifetime,” one user said.
Some claimed that students who attend elite high schools are taught to think they are better than others.
‘We were actively encouraged to think we were better than public school children. Very bad,” said one user.
Several private schools in Australia have been embroiled in controversy in recent months along with Cranbrook.
Several private schools in Australia have been embroiled in controversy in recent months, including Newington College, which announced a decision to become coeducational (protesters pictured outside Newington College in Sydney).
Accusations against the school led to the resignation of principal Nicholas Sampson, who resigned following an “irrevocable breach of trust” with the school board.
There was a backlash from former Newington College students who protested outside the school along with dozens of parents to oppose the decision to make the college co-educational.
The 160-year-old school, which charges annual fees of $42,201 for a 12-year-old, announced in 2023 that female high school students will be allowed starting in 2026, with plans to make it fully coeducational by 2033.
Figures released by the ABS last year showed that independent schools, including elite private universities, had the highest growth rate in student enrollment numbers at 3.3 per cent.