Ballarat Clarendon College was the highest-performing regional school in this year’s VCE results – for the seventh successive year. The school had 27 per cent of study scores over 40, placing it in the state’s top 10.Principal David Shepherd said he was very proud. “There are terrific young people all over Victoria and when put in the right conditions they can achieve well, whether they are in city or a regional centre,’’ he saidSam McDonald, who scored 99.4, said teachers at Ballarat Clarendon predicted how each student would perform in a subject then encouraged them to beat their predicted score, which was adjusted throughout the year depending on how well they performed.“It was really good because it provided motivation – if you started going down, you knew you needed to put in a bit more work in that subject,’’ he said.Ballarat Grammar was eighth in the list of regional schools, based on the percentage of study scores over 40. The rankings from this year’s VCE have raised concerns that Victoria has a segregated education system. Students at private and selective government schools dramatically outperformed those at other public schools.MacRobertson Girls High School, a selective government school where more than 1200 students compete for 225 year 9 places every year, blitzed the field with 44 per cent of subject scores 40 or above.But the public system was generally poorly represented in the rankings, which were dominated by private schools, most of them from the eastern suburbs. The highest-performing non-selective or specialist state school was Glen Waverley Secondary College, with 21 per cent of study scores 40 or above. VCE subjects are marked out of 50, with a study score of 30 the average, and more than 40 considered an excellent result.Ben Jensen, school education research director at the Grattan Institute in Melbourne, said the results were concerning for those who believed in a comprehensive education, because it was clear there were very large differences between the sectors in terms of student performance.Jewish schools did exceptionally well, with Beth Rivkah Ladies College (35 per cent of study scores 40 or above), Bialik College (35 per cent), Mount Scopus Memorial College (35 per cent) and Leibler Yavneh College (33 per cent) all in the top 10.Mount Scopus principal Rabbi James Kennard said it was phenomenal that four Jewish schools were among the top 10, when the Jewish community comprised a tiny fraction of the population. “This is a tribute to the quality of our schools, but also to the Jewish community’s love for learning and the students’ desire to succeed,’’ Rabbi Kennard said.Professor Stephen Lamb, an education professor at the University of Melbourne, said Victoria had a very segregated education system. “All of the top-performing schools are selective in one form or another, either through academic tests or the application of fees,” Professor Lamb said. “We tend to have kids from wealthy backgrounds who have the highest NAPLAN and VCE results at elite private schools and selective-entry schools and a lot of kids from poorer backgrounds in government schools or poorer Catholic schools. “Ultimately, some schools can’t achieve the same thing because all the kids they would normally have in their intake have been removed.’’