Australias Education Timeline

Australia's Education Timeline

1850's

1880's

1890s

In the 1850s and long before, schooling in Australia was not always a priority. Parents got to choose if their children went to school and for how long they attended.

There was no state funding, regulated curriculum or even trained teachers.

Some educated men and women would teach children in their own homes or in make shift schools. These schools were often just single roomed buildings like halls, sheds or churches.

Many children were only taught in basic literary and math skills, and left school to enter the work force as young as 8 years old.

Girls were often not schooled for as long as boys and where taught how to 'run a house hold', learning how to sew, mend and cook.

In April 1880, the NSW premier Sir Henry Parkes brought about a new education act called the Public Instruction Act 1880, in which the NSW government took responsibility for the primary years of education.

State assistance to denominational schools was ended and government schools were placed under a Public Schools Board with the purpose of providing technical schools for boys, and evening schools and high schools for boys and girls.

1900s

Not much was changing in early education during this time, however secondary education, particulry for women was going through the beginnings of social change.

Women were still not allowed to enrol in many university or higher education courses, but in 1891, the NSW Womanhood Suffrage League (WSL) was formed by Rose Scott, Margaret Windeyer, Dora Montefiore and Maybanke Wolstenholme. The WSL fought for many rights for women, including the right to higher education.

Whilst the first registered woman doctor in Australia was , Dr Constance Stone, in 1890, Ms Stone had to go overseas to study at Toronto University in Canada as women were not allowed to enroll in the medical courses here in Australia.

The Victorian School Room

1910s

The Department of Public Instruction inherited 1265 schools: 150 denominational, 705 public, 313 provisional and 97 half time.

State education became secular and compulsory for children between the ages of 6 and 14 years, and the teaching of religion in these schools was not allowed.

Check out this quirky reenactment video (by Education not Limited) of what school might of been like in the 1800s, also known as the Victorian era! Do you think all teachers were so grumpy!?

In 1901 Australian education, except in Western Australia, was suffering from the financial effects of the long economic depression.

During this time a Royal Commission on Technical Education known as the 'Fink Report' recommended a new type of secondary technical school.

Schools became compulsory for 6 to 13 year olds however this was not strictly enforced and remained out of reach of the most isolated Australian communities. Indigenous Australians were excluded from these laws and from public funded education.

A new syllabus (curriculum) was introduced in 1902, with greater emphasis on science, 'aesthetics and social living'.

Women's Suffrage in Australia

But in 1896, the Queen Victoria Memorial Hospital for Women and Children was established in Melbourne. Dr Constance Stone, her sister Clara and cousin Mary were among the first honorary medical officers there.

And in 1899, the Australasian Trained Nurses' Association was founded in Sydney allowing women to be trained and then employed in the nursing profession.

Women began to fight for equality all over the world during the late 1800s to, well, today! Here is a quick video that discusses some of the issues and women involved in Australia's Women Suffrage Movement.

In 1905, Victoria's first public secondary school, the 'Continuation School', was established in Melbourne.

However, it was not until 1918 that the state secondary school system was fully established for all students.

The beginnings of state run high schools developed in the mid to late 1910s, however, the idea came up against many obstacles. Funding, socioeconomics, a fluctuating economy and competition with private schooling, to name a few!

The schools were to be for 12-14 year olds and it was believed at the time that there needed to be different schools that specialized in the areas students needed to learn for their future intended occupation.

These state run High schools where not available to children from all socioeconimic backgrounds for decades to come.

Indigenous Australians

Photo's, news clippings and documents are sourced from "Women Working Together" website; http://home.vicnet.net.au/~women/inde... and the audio is sourced from "Great Queensland women from our past" website; http://www.women.qld.gov.au/leadershi...

Indigenous Australians were treated poorly in almost all areas of life in Australia, click on the link below for a brief look at early 19th century Aboriginal history.

1920s

http://australianmuseum.net.au/indigenous-australia-timeline-1901-to-1969

1930s

1940s

1950s

Secondary schooling was still designed for children aged 12-14 to be trained for specific employment. These technical Schools were still mostly for boys. Most girls finishes chooling at 11, with a small number going on to technical schools that provided further domestic education.

There were sections of the government and community leaders that wanted to unify these technical schools, have a more general and broader curriculum. However their efforts where quashed, leaving the secondary school system to remain unchanged for decades.

However, secondary schools in rural Australia did not have enough students to have specialized teaching and so generally adopted a broader curriculum. The more reflected our current school system.

The fees surrounding secondary schooling were subject to constant debate during this time. Some wanted the government to pay for them, others didn't. This was troubling, as this would marginalize parts of the community who could not afford secondary schooling.

During this time, primary schoold enrollment increased significantly.

And then, in the late 1920s, Australia began to slide into an economic depression

1960s to 1970s

The impact of the 1930s Depression on Australian secondary schools was felt late into the 1940s.

A nationwide survey in 1946 showed that only 88% of the 13-14 year olds were at full-time school, 57% of 14-15 year olds, 27% of 15-16 year olds and 7% of 16-17 year olds.

Schooling, amongst many aspects of life, where disrupted during the second world war, from 1939 to 1945.

However, Australia began to experience an economic boom from 1945. Schools began to receive more funding and interest. The public system began to be streamlined and expanded, filling in gaps in the curriculum and accessibility of schools. Enrollments and attendance began to rise.

School fees where reintroduced for public schools as a response to the recession (which was at its worst in 1931 to 1932) and the rise in secondary school enrollments that the government could not afford.

This was problematic, as middle to lower class families where hardest hit by the depression and many could now not afford to send their children to school.

The Depression had a detrimental effect on both the numbers of Australian children who could access education and the funding the government gave to schools in general.

School enrollments and attendance was continuing to rise. Threw out the decade, Australian schools where going through significant reform.

The increase in primary school enrollments meant the government needed to prepare the secondary schools for an increase also.

There was a public inquiry and survey between 1953 and 1957 helped to guide the reforms further.

A school room in the 1920s

The decade between 1968-78 was a crucial period for laying the foundations for the eventual drive towards universal secondary education.

The increase in secondary education capacity across all sectors between the late 1960s and late 1970s indicated a second wave of mass reforms in education, particularly the restructuring of the Australian secondary schools curriculum and teaching methods, and the funding of these changes by the States and the Commonwealth.

What was school like back then?

Find out what going to school looked like in the mid to late 1940s! This film was produced by The National Film Board in 1947, for the Australian Government. The film was designed to education immigrant and working class families on the benefits of public schooling.

The Labor Government of the 1940s introduced federal subsidies for disadvantaged university students as a wartime manpower control and as a postwar reconstruction initiative. A scholarship or funding assistance scheme was proposed to help more students move on to and stay in secondary school.

The Labor government was not re-elected in 1949 and the proposal for state funded secondary school scholarships was tabled.

Teachers in the 1950s

Check out this instructional video for teachers on how to maintain discipline in the classroom!

Despite these reforms the Australian school system still struggled with social inequality.

Poorer parts of the community still could not access it, and Indigenous Australians where still only educated in poorly funded Indigenous schools.

1980s

Click this link to see what an average morning for primary school kids was like in the 70s!

Combined, they provided the foundation that would see the introduction of universal secondary education in Australia that would see all children between the ages of 5 to 16 either at primary school, high school, apprenticeships or on the job learning.

<iframe width='640' height='520' src='http://splash.abc.net.au/web/splash/embed?id=1264247' frameborder='0' scrolling='no' allowfullscreen></iframe>

1990s

2000s

The Fraser Government (1975 to 1983) began to reduce Commonwealth funding from the States' public education systems to Catholic schools and already well funded private schools; claiming that the move would allow parents to have more choice when choosing schools.

It also added 'excellence' to its strategy for encouraging 'choice', which encouraged the idea that private schools where superior to public schools.

Also during this time, the Australian Government experienced what is now termed the 'revolt of the rich' where the wealthy Australians began to complain about paying taxes that went to the maintenance of the modern welfare state, which included public education systems and where against any expanditure of public schooling.

2010s

References

During the 90s the government cut the grants to high income non-government schools and increased grants to low income schools.

By the late 1990s the average non-government school received 54% of its budget from government grants (Commonwealth 36%, States 18%) and 46% from private sources such as fees.

However, private and religious schools were still given more funding per student than public schools.

For example, in 1999 a high income non-government secondary school would have received a total of $1,279 per student. Most Catholic system schools received about $4,500 per student!

The Indigenous community, at this time, were still facing marginalization and discrimination within the school system. The full and correct history of Indigenous Australians after white settlement is still not being taught in school.

Road Safety

However, during the 80s Special Commonwealth programs to increase participation and equity strategies in public high schools where developed and the student assistance scheme was increased substantially to help prevent poorer students from missing out on secondary education.

In 2000 the government revised the way grants to non-government schools, except for the Catholic systems, where calculated.

As of 2001 non government schools received grants based on the socioeconomic status of the areas in which the parents of their children resided.

The total grants for non-government schools was substantially increased. This meant that the amount of money non- government schools received through fees and other revenue did not effect the amount of funding they received from the government. This meant that private schools became increasingly better funded than public schools.

Public primary and secondary schooling is still provided by the government without tuition fees.

NAPLAN testing was also introduced in 2008.

More and more, teachers and schools, were becoming responsible for teaching children lessons about how to interact with the community. Road safety became an increasingly important issue, as children walked to school and there was an ever growing number of cars on the roads. This is a road safety video for primary school children in the 1980s. Notice, teachers are becoming a lot less formal!

Bassett, G. W. 1963, "Education", in A. L. McLeod, (ed.) The pattern of Australian Culture, Oxford Univerisity Press, Melbourne.

Cole, P. R. (ed.) 1935, "Introduction", in The Education of the Adolescent in Australia, Melbourne University Press, Melbourne, p.11.

Cunningham, K. S. 1947, "Education", in C. Hartley Grattan (ed.) Australia, Berkeley, University of California Press, p. 344.

Fensham, P. 1972, "School and family factors among Commonwealth Secondary Scholarship Winners in Victoria, 1964-1971", in D. Edgar (ed.) Sociology of Australian Education: A Book of Readings, McGraw-Hill, Sydney, pp. 26-40.

Karmel, P. 1962, Some Economic Aspects of Education, F. W. Cheshire, Melbourne.

Karmel, P. 1967, "Some Arithmetic of Education", in E. L. French (ed.) Melbourne Studies in Education 1966, Melbourne University Press, Melbourne pp. 3-34.

Karmel, P. (Chair) 1973, Schools in Australia, Report of the Interim Committee for the Australian Schools Commission, Australian Government Publishing Service, Canberra.

Mathews, R. L. 1968, "Finance for education", Economic Papers, No 27, June 1968.

Monroe, P. (ed.) 1911, 'Australia', A Cyclopedia of Education, Macmillan, New York. pp. 301-02.

Teese, R. 1989, "Gender and Class in the Transformation of the Public High School in Melbourne 1946 to 1985", History of Education Quarterly, Vol.29, No.2, pp. 237-259.

http://www.abs.gov.au/education

Between 2009 and 2013 the Australian Curriculum went through a period of reform.

Key areas like rationale, aims, content descriptions and achievement standards where reviewed and changed.

The government also chose to implement 4 of 30 recommended changes made by the 2013 Australian Curriculum Review which were to:

Reduce curriculum crowding

Increase parent accessibility

Address the needs of students with intellectual disabilities

Increase phonics in the curriculum

The success of these changes has not yet been measurable.

Students, parents, teachers and academics alike, are becoming increasingly concerned about the current schools system; how much stress it is causing both primary and secondary students and if it is actually preparing them for university and employment. Click here to have a look at alternative schooling in Australia.