In South Australia

The South Australian School Society was founded in 1838 and its first building erected on North Terrace, Adelaide, although it was never used for its intended purpose. Lack of funding meant the Society was quickly wound up.

However, George Fife Angas noted in 1843 that there were 47 schools in South Australia. Private schools were established, including St Peter's College in 1847 and dame schools flourished in the poorer areas.

In 1851 An Act to promote Education in South Australia, by aids towards the creation of Schools and the payment of Stipends to Teachers (Education Act) was passed 'to support and improve ... parents' and neighbours' efforts to establish schools.'

For the next 20 years a statutory Board of Education subsidised the building of schools and supplemented teachers' incomes (teachers were generally paid out of the fees paid by the parents; the Board's supplementary payments were for demonstrably 'efficient' teachers). These schools were intended for the lower and middle classes.

The wealthy provided for the education of their own children with private tutors and governesses, and with privately funded schools.

The 1851 Act did not make attendance compulsory and, in Adelaide's poorer sections and in rural areas, children attended school when and as their parents' could afford it, and when they were not required to assist about the house or farm.

As late as the 1890s and after the passing of An Act to amend the Law relating to Public Education (Education Act) in 1875 which enforced compulsory attendance in elementary school, at least one mother is recorded as stating in response to the question of her children's school attendance: 'I have three children going to school and I require one at home so I send them alternate weeks.' (Richards p. 378)

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The 1875 Education Act made it compulsory for children between the ages of seven and 13 to attend school. Full time attendance was still not compulsory; a minimum of about two-thirds of the school year was allowed, which was largely dictated by the need for the children's labour on family farms.

Full time compulsory attendance was finally legislated in 1915. Meanwhile working class parents had petitioned successfully for free elementary education, which was granted in 1891. The school leaving age was raised to 15 years in 1963, and then to 16 in 2003. From 2009 the school leaving age in South Australia will be increased to 17 years. (Tasmania, Queensland and Western Australia have already set the school leaving age at 17, while New South Wales and Victoria have recently raised it to 16.)

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