The movement spread across the country and by 1908 all the colonies had centralised government departments administering free, compulsory and secular education.
The Education Act of 1872 was the first of its kind in the world. The first in the Australian colonies. Education was free and compulsory, so the whole community would benefit. All children aged 6-15 years had to attend school unless they had a reasonable excuse.
It is compulsory for children to have commenced school by the time they have turned six years of age. Most children start between four-and-a-half and five-and-a-half years. Children generally attend primary school until they are 11 or 12 years of age.
Education is compulsory in Western Australia between the ages of six and seventeen. From 1 January 2008 persons in their 17th year must be in school, training, or have a job until the end of that year.
In 1868 the colony of Tasmania became the first in Australia to make attendance for children between the ages of seven and 12 compulsory.
The first free kindergarten in Australia was established in 1896 in Sydney, New South Wales, by the Kindergarten Union of NSW (now KU Children's Services) led by reformer Maybanke Anderson.
The first opportunity for a woman to head up a girls' government high school in Australia occurred in 1879, when South Australia's first secondary school, the Advanced School for Girls, opened, and the 'highly certificated' Jane Stanes was appointed foundation headmistress.
Primary schools were to be 'free and fair', open to all children of school age within 2km of a school – though in practice access was often not equal. Aboriginal families in many areas enrolled their children in public schools.
In a snapshot
In 1872 the Victorian Government passed the Education Act 1872, which set up the colony's public school system. This new legislation made Victoria the first Australian colony to offer free, secular and compulsory education to its children.
1870. In the early 1870s the first Aboriginal children are enrolled in the public schools in NSW. By 1880 there are 200 Aboriginal children in school in NSW.
Your child must go to school until they are 17 years old. If your child wants to leave before they are 17 for another program or employment, there are certain requirements that must be met. These must be approved by the department. Parents can be prosecuted if they do not make sure their child goes to school.
Is it illegal to keep my child home from school? In Australia, Parents are legally obliged to ensure their child attends school – or to undertake other educational options such as homeschooling – every school day of the formal school year, unless the parent has a 'reasonable excuse' for not doing so.
It's the law that children 6 to 17 years old go to school or be home schooled. You are legally responsible for making sure your child goes to school every day.
Full fee-paying students
Full fee places for Australian undergraduate students were phased out in 2009 under reforms made by the Gillard government. Other students may obtain a full fee place (FFP) if they do not receive a Commonwealth supported place, subject to meeting relevant qualifications.
#OnThisDay 16 April 1880 school was made compulsory for children aged 6 to 14 years in NSW. The Public Instruction Act 1880 required attendance for a period of not less than 70 days every half-year. As a result the number of schools and pupils increased throughout the State.
Early Compulsory Education Laws in the U.S.
Massachusetts became the first U.S. state to enact a compulsory education law in 1852, having already passed a similar law in 1647 when it was still a British colony. The 1852 law required every city and town to offer primary school, focusing on grammar and basic arithmetic.
The ABC transmitted the first episode of Play School on 18 July 1966. The program was based on the format of the BBC production of the same name, which began in 1964 and ceased production in 1988.
Participation in preschool is not compulsory and is influenced by parental preference and other factors, such as school starting age in the particular jurisdiction. a. New South Wales subsidises early access to community preschool for 3 year old Aboriginal children and 3 year old children from low-income families.
In the 1860s, Victoria became the first state to pass laws authorising Aboriginal children to be removed from their parents. Similar policies were later adopted by other states and territories – and by the federal government when it was established in the 1900s.
The National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Education Policy came into effect from January 1, 1990.
Why were Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children taken from their families? The forcible removal of First Nations children from their families was based on assimilation policies, which claimed that the lives of First Nations people would be improved if they became part of white society.
There were two aims to the child migrant programme: to ease the burden on UK orphanages; and to boost the populations of the colonies.
Newcastle East Public School started off as a charity school inside a church vestry in 1816, under instructions from Governor Lachlan Macquarie, to provide free education to all children in Newcastle, whether they were children of convicts or free settlers.
A school in Australia is reportedly supporting a "phenomenally bright" young girl who is identifying as a cat. The teenager is apparently allowed to act like a feline and be non-verbal at the private school in Melbourne, as long as it does not become a distraction to her fellow pupils.