A new dimension in higher education was added with the establishment of provincial universities in the west (1901–08). This completed a set of regional patterns for university development that was continued. Canadian universities, within these patterns, drew their criteria from French, British, or American models. From the 1950s a boom in Canadian higher education led to increasingly independent considerations on the role of universities in Canadian development. While the 1950s and ’60s saw a great expansion of universities, the 1970s and ’80s saw rapid growth in postsecondary, nonuniversity education in provincially funded colleges. These colleges all offered some range of vocational programs. Their relationships with universities varied: some offered university transfer programs (Alberta), some offered university prerequisites (Quebec), and some had no formal relationship (Ontario). With an increasing student population in a wider range of postsecondary alternatives, the rationalization, planning, and funding of this sector was a primary issue for provincial governments.
The administration of public education was the exclusive responsibility of the provinces, which had worked out schemes of local authority under provincial oversight. Although the specific structure of the departments of education varied among the provinces, they conformed to a basic structure. Each was headed by a politically appointed minister of education, who might be advised by a council. The main functions of educational supervision were usually carried out through specific directorates for such areas as curriculum, examinations, vocational education, teacher training and certification, and adult education. Three developments, however, strengthened local autonomy in educational administration. Throughout the second quarter of the 20th century, consolidation of rural schools and administrative units took place in the west, thus resulting in stronger educational units that were more competent to act independently. Moves toward regional decentralization, especially in Ontario, Quebec, and New Brunswick, produced rather independent subprovincial units. Finally, urban development led to relatively autonomous city school operations. Provincial authority was reemphasized, however, with the demands for better system articulation and for standardization of requirements, programs, and testing.
Canada’s federal government had no constitutional authority in education and therefore maintained no general office dealing directly with educational matters. Federal activities in education were nevertheless carried out under other areas of responsibility, and certain functions of an office of education were subsumed under the secretary of state. The Council of Ministers of Education, Canada, brought together the chief educational officers of the provinces and ensured national communication at the governmental level. Under its responsibility for native peoples and its jurisdiction over extra-provincial territories, the federal government—through the Department of Indian Affairs and Northern Development—financed and supervised the education of aboriginal Canadians. In the Yukon, schools were administered by the territorial government, though largely financed from Ottawa.
Through agricultural and technical assistance acts in 1913 and 1919, the federal government began to promote vocational education, and this principle was extended through emergency programs in the depression years of the 1930s and during World War II. Vocational programs of wide scope were later introduced on a principle of federal support and provincial operation. The Technical and Vocational Assistance Act of 1960 was followed by a great surge in vocational education, including the construction of new schools and school additions, special institutes, and the preparation of vocational teachers. Program definitions in this area later became ever broader.
The federal government maintained and supported the education of armed-forces personnel. Research and development in higher education were promoted directly through grants from national research councils for social sciences and humanities, for the natural sciences and engineering, for medicine, and for the arts. Statistics Canada disseminated organized statistical information on schools and on social factors affecting education. Perhaps less direct but of great importance were national agencies operating in the area of mass communications media, such as the National Film Board. Together, the activities of the federal government not only supported but also strongly influenced certain areas of education and completed a picture of local-provincial-federal involvement in Canadian education. Australia and New Zealand Australia
The 20th-century development of Australian education continued to be influenced by British models and to be characterized by the exercise of strong central authority in the states. Yet, because Australian national development began in that century, increasing attention was given to the role of education in nation building.
Educational systems were built through the establishment of primary schools by the end of the 19th century, the extension of these through continuation programs, and the development of state secondary schools in the early part of the 20th century. The independent secondary schools that offered the bulk of secondary education before 1900 continued to be influential, either as components of the separate Roman Catholic system or as “elite” private schools of denominational or nondenominational character, but the growth of state systems carried the state high schools into numerical prominence.
The early development of educational systems before and around the turn of the 20th century was a crude beginning, the minimal provisions being accentuated by poor teacher preparation, administrative thrift schemes, and excess in the exercise of administrative authority. Improvement of these conditions and systematic positive development can be dated from the Fink Report of 1898 in Victoria and similar reform appeals in other states between 1902 and 1909. The steady pace of progress from that time was broken by a surge of growth and innovation in Australian institutions after World War II.
Education in small, isolated communities throughout the vast Australian area required special attention. As a means of reaching isolated children and adults, correspondence education was begun in 1914 in Victoria, and other states followed after 1922. The procedures were gradually refined and the levels extended. More formal early efforts included the introduction of provisional schools, itinerant teachers, and central schools in the outback. The small one-teacher bush schools became typical after federation in 1901. Much attention was given to methods of teaching in the one-room school, earning Australia international recognition for expertise in this area. Progress toward rural school consolidation began in Tasmania in 1936. The Tasmanian model combined special features of school independence, pupil freedom, involvement in agricultural projects, and parental cooperation with the “area school” movement. There was later a rapid decline in one-teacher all-age schools in Australia in favour of consolidated schools in central locations.
Education was a state, rather than a federal, responsibility in Australia. Authority was concentrated in a state department of education. The political head was the minister of education, and the permanent official in charge was the director or director general of education. The main divisions of the department were those for primary, secondary, and technical education, each directed by a senior official. Additional divisions, such as for special education or in-service training, were particular to the states. Department policy was executed through a hierarchy of educational experts. In the 1980s, major changes in administrative organization took place in all state systems toward devolution of authority to local regions and schools. A corporate style of management became current, using criteria of rationalization, effectiveness, and economic efficiency to guide organizational decisions.