ABSTRACT
In the second half of the nineteenth century each of the colonial governments had created a system of elementary education, secular, compulsory and free. Initiatives for change came from the administrators who, in the early part of the century, attempted to extend the educational ladder up from the primary to the secondary level. The basis of Commonwealth policy emerged more clearly as the commitment to secondary education expanded. The Liberals responded cautiously to the educational programs of the Labor Government. Their endorsement of the principle of educational opportunity was balanced by their attachment to the objectives of ‘excellence’, ‘quality’, ‘variety’ and ‘freedom of choice’. In the past Australian schools had favoured the ‘academically able’ and the ‘fortunate’ to the detriment of genuine equality of opportunity. The advantages of the private school lie not just in its superior material resources, its more spacious grounds, smaller class-sizes and better libraries, but all in its ability to reproduce ideological and cultural values.
