2. 1. General Background
2. Politics and the Goals of the Education System
3. The Formal System of Education
4. Administrative and Supervisory Structure and Operation
5. Educational Finance
6. Supplying Personnel for the Education System
7. Curriculum Development and Teaching Methodology
8. The System of Examinations, Promotions,
and Certifications
9. Educational Assessment, Evaluation, and
Research
10. Major Reform
AUSTRALIA

3. • AUSTRALIA is a large island continent located close to
Southeast Asia and the South Pacific.
• The land mass totals 7.7 million square kilometers.
• In 1990, the population was 17 million. As of 24 April 2012 at
05:24:18 PM (Canberra time), the resident population of
Australia is projected to be: 22,886,339. This projection is
based on the estimated resident population at 30 September
2011 of the Australian Bureau of Statistics.
• Large-scale immigration has slowly changed the ethnic mix
and produced a more culturally diverse society.
• Middle East and Southeast Asia have been
prominent sources of immigrants.
• English is the language of virtually all
activities.

4. The dominant role of governments in financing and
administering education means that the education policies of
the major political parties are of considerable importance:
• The party of social democratic inclination (the Labor Party) is
more likely to emphasize equitable access, the need for
compensatory programs, and the importance of teacher and
parent involvement in decision-making.
• The Liberal and National parties tend to
place more weight on the need to maintain
academic standards, parental choice of
school, and vocationally relevant curricula.
AUSTRALIA

5. In the compulsory years of schooling the major emphasis tends
to be on fostering individual development and general
socialization. At the upper – secondary and tertiary
levels, broader economic and social goals tend to become
significant.
AUSTRALIA

6. Primary, Secondary, and Tertiary Education
• Education is compulsory from ages 6 to 15 (16 in Tasmania)
and between these ages there is virtually 100 percent
attendance at school.
• Most children, start primary school at age of 5 but majority of
4-year olds attend kindergarten, normally part-time, before
commencing primary school.
• A large number of 3-year olds attend a kindergarten or other
preschool center, but programs are usually
not subsidized and parents pay full fees.
• Primary education lasts for either six or
seven years, depending on the state
concerned.
AUSTRALIA

7. • The school day normally contains about 5 hours in primary
and 5.5 hours in secondary and has 200 days in a school year.
• Secondary education is available for either five or six years
depending upon the length of primary education in the state.
• Students normally commence secondary school at about age
12.
• The secondary school completion rate is higher for girls than
boys, largely because more boys than girls leave school to
enter an apprenticeship.
• The tertiary sector comprises colleges of technical and
further education (TAFE) and universities.
• The TAFE colleges provide a wide variety of
courses including pre-employment
programs, and liberal adult education.
This is the most accessible part of the
tertiary sector. AUSTRALIA

8. Special Education
• Special education programs are provided for students with
physical, intellectual, and emotional disabilities. These
schools, which are almost all located in the government
sector, are staffed on an average student-teacher ratio of
about 5 to 1. There was a decline on the proportion of
students in special schools in 1980s when there was an
emphasis on integrating disabled students into
mainstream schools and classes.
AUSTRALIA

9. Vocational, Technical, and Business Education
• The difficult economic conditions of the 1980s focused
attention on the provision of vocational, technical and
business education.
• A major difficulty in this area is that one of the principal
avenues of vocational training, apprenticeships, is highly
susceptible to general economic conditions. There is no
explicit policy as to which students should receive vocational
training.
• General government policy is to re-emphasize
the importance of vocational education
and to recognize its increasing convergence
with general education.
AUSTRALIA

10. Adult and Nonformal Education
• Adult participation in formal education is increasing.
• Enrollments in the nonformal sector are, by their
nature, more difficult to estimate.
• Nonformal education is provided through a variety of
agencies and institutions.
• Nonformal education is also provided by a large number of
neighborhood learning centers, ethnic groups, and those
involved in adult literacy programs.
• Job training is emerging as an area of
considerable importance in nonformal
education.
AUSTRALIA

11. • Education is the responsibility of the individual states and
territories. State education departments recruit and appoint
the teachers in government schools; supply
buildings, equipment and materials; and provide some
limited discretionary funding for use by schools.
• Private schools are an important feature of the education
system. Almost all private schools have some religious
affiliations, most commonly with the Catholic
Church. Private schools are largely free from
government direction, aside from having to
meet prescribed minimum educational
standards for registration and funding
purposes.

12. • State and federal governments supply more than 90% of the
funds for education.
• The broad division of governmental responsibility is that the
states fund government schools and TAFE, and the federal
government finances private schools, higher education and
student financial support.
• Private funding of education is mostly in the form of tuition
fees paid to private schools.
• All private schools also receive some direct government
funding.
• Full-time secondary and higher education
students are eligible for financial assistance
through means tested allowances provided
on a noncompetitive basis.

13. • Nearly 200,000 (full-time equivalent) teachers were
employed in schools in 1990. A further 45,000 people
worked in nonteaching positions. About 93,000 teachers
were employed in primary schools, 102,000 in secondary
schools and 4,000 in special schools. Some 60% of school
teachers are female. However, men are more likely than
women to occupy senior administrative positions in schools.
• The normal length of initial training for secondary teachers is
now four years of higher education. This generally comprises
a three-year degree in a major discipline
followed by a one-year diploma of education.
• Government teachers usually serve a 1 or
or 2-year probationary period before
becoming eligible for permanent employment.
AUSTRALIA

14. • Private school teachers are normally employed directly by the
school concerned although, like government school
teachers, their salaries and conditions are determined by
industrial tribunals.
• Governments have supported the introduction of a new
classification of teacher, commonly termed “Advanced Skills
Teacher.”
• These teachers, who are selected on the basis of their
qualifications and demonstrated competence, receive slightly
higher salaries for taking responsibility for a
range of professional duties including
curriculum development and the induction
of beginning teachers.
AUSTRALIA

15. • There is no common school curriculum across the country.
• The general pattern is that central authorities specify broad
curricular guidelines and schools have considerable
autonomy in deciding curriculum detail and teaching
methodology.
• All students are exposed to a curriculum that provided some
coverage of reading, writing, mathematics, science, social
studies, humanities, the expressive and
performing arts, physical education, and less
frequently, a foreign language.
AUSTRALIA

16. • The federal government is keen to encourage more foreign-
language teaching in schools, especially the languages of
Australia’s major trading partners in Asia.
• A major development was the adoption by the state and
federal education ministers of a set ten broad goals for
schooling in Australia.
• The goals include development of students’ knowledge and
skills in literacy, numeracy, computing, languages
other than English, the creative arts and
environmental understanding.
AUSTRALIA

17. • In most schools students are automatically promoted
between year levels according to age.
• The first normal certificate is generally received at year 10
based on internal school assessment.
• All states award a certificate based on successful completion
of year 12.
• There is increasing use of criterion-based rather than norm-
referenced assessment.
• These developments are a response to the
perceived need for year 12 programs to be
broadened beyond a concentration on
preparation for higher education.

18. • Several states have commissioned the Australian Council for
Educational Research (ACER) to assess student achievement
in the basic areas of literacy and numeracy, and other states
have initiated their own testing programs.
• A landmark in this respect was the 1990 publication of the
first national report on schooling.
• At the higher education level a major change in research
policy was evident in the establishment of the
Australian Research Council (ARC) in 1989.
• This federal initiative has sought to alter the
“research culture” of higher education…

19. • The dramatic rise in the proportion of young people who
completed secondary education. This has stimulated far-
reaching changes in curricula, assessment, and school
structures.
• The need for teaching career to be restructured to attract and
retain able people has also been high on the reform agenda.
• The need for education to assist the Australian
economy to become more internationally
competitive.
AUSTRALIA

20. • Finding the resources to support the continued expansion of
senior-secondary and tertiary education.
• Teachers will need to acquire new skills and knowledge to
assist their students anticipate and control the pace of
change.
• The development of rewarding structures for teachers and
academics is likely to be a major problem.
• The difficulties of providing effective programs
to scattered populations will remain.
• Program development to help redress social,
gender, and economic inequalities will
continue to be a challenge.
AUSTRALIA

21. …End Show…
AUSTRALIA