EDUCATION IN AUSTRALIA

Press, Volume LXXIX, Issue 23848, 18 January 1943, Page 3

EDUCATION IN AUSTRALIA

FEDERAL CONTROL URGED BY TEACHERS (0.C.) SYDNEY, January 8. A plan for the supervision of education to be taken out of the hands of the states and vested in a Commonwealth board was recommended at the annual conference-.-of the Australian Teachers' Federation,-held in Sydney. The conference suggested that the board should supervise education in all states, advise on training of teachers, and determine *the qualifications required for service as a teacher in Australian schools. Teachers,, it was considered, should.be trained to a high educational standard and given professorial status. One delegate that a certificate should be awarded after three years at an approved teachers’ training school. The conference also made 11 recommendations for post-war education. These included free education at every stage for all, including greater attention to the needs of the pre-school child, and the establishment of special schools for sub-normal and delinquent children, and the development ot community centres; the reduction of the size of classes to a maximum of 30 pupils; and the raising of the school leaving age to 16 years. The present minimum school leaving-age is 14 years and 8 months. It will be raised this year to 15, and progressively in succeeding years till it reaches 16 years. , ~ Steps to examine post-war education problems have already been taken by the New South Wales Government, which has approved the establishment of a sub-committee of the State Reconstruction Advisory Committee. Invitations to join the , sub-committee have been extended to representatives of the University of Sydney, the Department of Education, the Teachers Federation, and the Trade Union mdvem “ln addition to the important part which will be played by education in the task of rehabilitating the civil life.” said the Premier. Mr W. J. McKell, “there is a broader aspect. This is that an essential part of our plans for the future progressive development of the nation, both economic and social, must be the provision of greater educational opportunity and the raising of the level of education.”