Free, Compulsory and Secular Education.

 

Most Australians would be surprised to know that “Free, Compulsory, and Secular Education” is not in the Australian Constitution as today’s education system is generated and overseen by the Federal Government, almost in its entirety.  ACARA, (the Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority) is an independent statutory authority with a vision to inspire improvement in the learning of all young Australians through the National Curriculum, NAPLAN, the My School website and Parent Choice.

 

“Free, Compulsory and Secular Education” though was a foundational principle established by the six individual State Education Acts, beginning with Victoria in 1872. Education was primarily the responsibility of state and territory governments, not the Commonwealth, but that seems not to be so any more.  It would be hard to find a school today where education was truly “Free, Compulsory and Secular” and in the past it may have been more an aspiration than reality.

 

For a brief summary go to https://dehanz.net.au/entries/free-compulsory-secular-education-acts/ Also “Australian Education, 1788- 1900” by A.G.Austin is the comprehensive history of the nation’s education system up to Federation.

 

Several points of note on the website:
(1) Free - Not all of the 1870s acts established free education. School fees continued in some states into the twentieth century.

(2) Compulsory - None of the 1870s Acts were thorough in relation to demanding the compulsory attendance of children at schools. Most allowed for substantial periods of non-attendance without penalty, again into the twentieth century.

(3) Secular - Except for Victoria, the colonies allowed some visitation by religious clergy and others to give some denominational/religious instruction. If ‘secular’ meant no Christian influence on the curriculum at all, then none of the new public schools were secular. ‘Common Christianity’ elements survived in some of the textbooks, and often underpinned public school moral education.

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The acts played an important part in several intersecting historical and historiographical issues of consequence. They include:

1. the history of childhood

2. the size, behaviour and supervision of families

3. the making of the modern teacher and the school inspectorate

4. the systematising of the work of the school (e.g. school timetables and curricula)

5. the increasing capacity of the state to organise the population in general

6. relationships between governments and churches

7. the governing of populations at the margins, such as Indigenous peoples

8. new definitions of public and private in Australian society

9. urban, suburban and rural development

10. the extension of literacy, numeracy, and general education of the population

11. child and youth labour-force participation