I think Phillip O'Neill's apparent conclusion that government high schools in the Hunter are under-performing at the HSC, while non-government high schools are not, is flawed ("Hunter's poor HSC performance escapes examination", Opinion, 15/1). His conclusion is based solely upon an analysis of the proportion of a school's HSC subject entries awarded a Band 6 result (90 and above) by utilising the HSC data bases of two of Sydney's major newspapers.
Not all Band 6s are equal because not all subjects have the same level of difficulty. That is, some subjects are harder than others (e.g. the sciences). The percentage of students attaining a Band 6 differs from subject to subject, and within a subject from year to year. I remember one particular HSC year when as little as 5 per cent of students gained a Band 6 in one particular subject, while in another it was well north of 30 per cent.
