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The White Hat Guide to School Education in Australia

There are three main types of education available at this level:

• Government Schools, often referred to as State Schools since it is the Sate Government in each area that is responsible for them.
• Independent Schools - so called because they are 'independent' from the government schools but still have to obey broad educational regulations laid down by the State and Federal Governments. These are often referred to as Church Schools when run by a church, Private Schools and, because nothing is simple in the Australian education system Public Schools. (In many other countries 'Public School' is used to refer to a government school but in Australia it is often used to refer to the opposite - an independent school.)
• Home Schooling - this accounts for a tiny but growing section of education. Again it has to conform to broad educational regulations laid down by the State and Federal Governments.

Just to confuse things a little further, Australians often think of the schools in three categories:

• Government Schools
• Catholic Schools
• 'Richer' Private Schools

Some see the Catholic Schools with their generally lower fees as providing an alternative to the government schools and providing 'more discipline and rigour' although many would disagree with this point of view.

Free, Compulsory and Secular

By the time of Federation in 1901, each of the colonies starting with Victoria in 1872 that education should be free, compulsory and secular and this is written into the Constitution of Australia. The Federal Government was responsible for taxation and disbursed a share of it to each of the states who were then responsible for a number of areas such as health and school education.

However it is worth looking at 'free compulsory and secular' a little more closely.

Compulsory - Education from  the ages of about 5 to17 (regulations vary in each state) is compulsory in Australia. The starting and leaving age varies from state to state.

Free or Fee? -

Secular -

State or Federal? -

Single sex or co-educational?

Most government schools across Australia are co-educational. Many of the Independent Schools started life as single-sex schools but in recent decades they have shown a significant swing to becoming co-educational.