CHAPTER 2 - The Organization of Public Education

Abstract

This chapter discusses the organization of public education. The legislation passed by the six colonial governments between 1872 and the end of the century determined the pattern of Australian education, which has persisted throughout the present century. The large majority of children receive their education in primary and secondary schools established and conducted by the State governments. About three-quarters of the children attend State schools; of those who are educated at independent or non-State schools, about 80 percent are enrolled in the Catholic schools. For the first few decades after the resolution of the religious controversy and the taking of the decision that public education should be free, compulsory, and secular, the governments concentrated on the establishment of primary schools in their attempt to provide schooling throughout the length and breadth of their States. Because of the size of five of the six States, the small and scattered populations, and the scarcity of resources, this was not an easy task.