Education Department (GA300)

On 30 November 1878, the Council of Education was dissolved and all its powers and duties were transferred to the 'Minister controlling Education' as a body corporate. (The title did not become Minister of Education until 1915). On 11 December the Education Department was established with an Inspector-General of Schools as its head.

John Anderson Hartley B.A. B.Sc., who had been Headmaster of Prince Alfred College, 1871-1875, then President of the Council of Education, was appointed as Inspector-General of Schools, a position he held until his death in 1896. Thereafter a 3 member Board of Inspectors ran the Department but this proved unwieldly and in 1902 one member was appointed Inspector-General, though the Board continued to function until 1906.

Alfred Williams, headmaster of Norwood Public School and President of the S.A. Public School Teachers Union was appointed Director of Education in 1906 and the Department continued to be administered by a Director until 1988 when Cabinet decided that the size and complexity of the Department warranted a Board rather than an individual Director. The Department administered the Teachers' Training College and the Public Schools established by its predecessors and took over a number of private schools which were reliant on it for funding. However, in areas where the available population did not warrant a public school, it inspected, certified and subsidised private non-denominational schools providing secular education.

Fees continued to be charged in public schools until 1891. Thereafter compulsory education was provided free and fees applied only to students continuing beyond age 13 in the special classes which were to evolve into high schools. In 1898 all fees were abolished. Fees were re-introduced for High School students in 1934 due to the financial stringencies resulting from the Depression but so many exemptions had to be granted that little revenue was raised and fees were finally abandoned in 1943.

The Department established a Pupil Teachers' School and an Advanced School for Girls. These were merged in 1908 to form Adelaide High School. At the same time continuation classes began to be centralised in rural areas so that one public school would become host to a district high school. In 1911 a Select Committee of Parliament was appointed which led to a Royal Commission into Education. The principal recommendations in its report, delivered in 1913, were incorporated into the Education Act., 1915, which established the functional arrangement of the Department and added technical education to its responsibilities (accomplished initially by taking over responsibility for the various Schools of Mines and Industry).

This latter evolved into the Division of Technical Education (responsible for apprentice, post-secondary and adult education) which began operation as the Department of Further Education in 1972, though it was not proclaimed as a separate Department until 29 April 1976. (It has since become the Department of Technical and Further Education.) A Medical Branch had been added to the Department in 1913 and this expanded until 1951 when it was transferred to the Public Health Department. The Correspondence School was established in 1920 but the Department continued to establish schools wherever it could guarantee a minimum of 20 pupils until the second World War.

In a gradual process that continued into the 1960's the Department closed small rural schools and provided a bus service to centrally located schools in each district. An Agricultural School (secondary) had been established in 1898 but in 1902 this was merged with the School of Mines and ultimately became Adelaide Technical High School. In the 1920's the Department began offering special courses for teachers in rural schools and in 1934 the Agricultural High School opened at Urrbrae. In 1941 the Department began establishing Area Schools in rural districts. These were High Schools which offered agricultural subjects as a component of the standard curriculum and their numbers grew to 16 in 1957.

The emphasis on secular non-denominational education, originally enshrined in legislation in 1895, was finally relaxed in 1940 when half an hour per week was set aside for voluntary religious instruction and clergymen were permitted to enter schools for the first time. In the 1960's and 1970's the Department began to place emphasis on the wider role of education in the community and to develop special programs to deal with school and post-school problems of young people.

SCHOOL-TO-WORK TRANSITION COMMITTEE:- This Committee was established in the early 1980's as a focus for South Australian efforts to deal with the problems of low retention rates in senior secondary education and youth unemployment. The Education Department played a significant role int he efforts of the Committee, which was would up when the Commonwealth Schools Commission began addressing these problems on a national basis. (Some of the staff and records of hte Committee were redeployed to the CSC's Participation and Equity Program in South Australia.)

COMMONWEALTH SCHOOLS COMMISSION:- The Commission administers special purpose programs designed to improve the quality of educaiton in Australia. It provides funding to state educaiton departments and non-government schools to carry out the objectives of the programs. Some, such as the Computer Education Program, are specific and short term. Others, such as the Country Areas Program (established 1977) are on-going programmes funded jointly by the Commonwealth and State Governments. The Commission maintained a regional office (CA3206 (2) and CA3008) in SA from 1974-1987, when its functions were absorbed by the SA Education Department.

PARTICIPATION AND EQUITY PROGRAM (PEP):- Commencing in 1984, this program provided funds to schools and technical colleges with the objectives of ensuring that all young people had equal access to education and encouraging them the complete secondary education or its equivalent. A State PEP Committee was established to approve and monitor projects and allocate funds between schools, TAFE colleges and community groups. A full-time executive officer serviced the committee and 13 staff implemented the schools component of PEP in SA (Project Coordinator, administration officer, 5 field officers and 6 project officers). The six major projects undertaken in SA schools as part of PEP were: - education of girls. - aboriginal education. - disabled students.- students from non-English speaking background (NESB). - senior secondary curriculum. - student participation. In addition, schools with a high proportion of enrollment from targeted groups, or with extremely low retention rates, were specifically targeted. A project officer coordinated each project and schools could obtain further assistance from the field officer for their region. PEP commenced late in 1984 and during 1984 and 1985 was largely confined to development of projects (some of which did not go ahead). The six projects listed above operated in 1986 and 1987.