Australia: The Australian Education System

Abstract

This chapter describes the complexity of Australian school education, identifying dominant and peripheral institutions and major issues such as funding, government control of education, the influence of student testing programs, parental choice, and school quality. The dominant institutions are the federal government and the six state and two territory governments. The state and territory governments are responsible for government education which accounts for two thirds of all students, whilst 32 Dioceses govern a Catholic system that account for one fifth of all students. The remaining students are in independent schools ranging from low-fee to high-fee schools, and usually connected to a faith. A range of government and professional associations service the school sectors. For principals and schools, all of these have the potential to impact on what they do but there is no simple way to describe this impact. Matters, like funding, clearly have a direct impact on schools, and state/territory governments and Dioceses often mandate matters that will have a direct impact on schools. It is less clear how service organisations impact on schools but generally their impact will be indirect. The impact of any of these matters is mitigated by school leadership, and the extent to which Australia has high quality schools is a combination of all of the government and service organisation influences, national and international societal contexts and school leadership.