Early History

School Inspection Report, 1902
J.F. Smyth, Inspector:

The School creates a distinctly bad impression. The Teacher appears to have sadly neglected his duty.

Several essential subjects such as Language, Poetry, Manual Work, Drill and History have not been taught at all; while in the other branches he professes to have taught, the pupils barely scored 40 %.

The children are naturally bright and intelligent, and with a conscientious teacher would have acquitted themselves creditably, in no way inferior to an ordinary Government A School.

It is therefore all the more to be deplored that they should have come out of the ordeal so badly.

A perusal of the Inspector’s Notes Form 1/6 will show the condition of the classes in respect to the branches of instruction.

Note added by S.W. Stanton, Inspector-General, 8.12.02:

‘The Teacher sets the bad example of keeping his own children away from the Examination.’

Towards Secondary Education

‘Throughout history the middle and upper classes, through their control of the economic, legislative and administrative apparatus, have given to the working classes as little and as poor an education as possible.’ So begin Rubinstein et al. (1972: 7) in their work on English education. And as for the working class, read also women and Aboriginal people. In all cases, in South Australia, the controllers of the education system baulked at every step: should ‘they’ be given any education at all ? Okay, if so, why any more than the basic two or three years ? Okay, if more, then why any secondary at all ? If any at all, shouldn’t it be ‘different’, for ‘different’ groups: technical education for the working class, girls’ technical education for girls, none for Aboriginal people ? How do we justify inferior education for dominated groups ? By ‘adapting’ education to their ‘special needs’ ?

These were the constant dilemmas for education policy-makers, especially around the turn of the century, when it was becoming obvious in all industrialising countries that their economic, administrative – even educational – systems required many more people with more than basic education. But those systems also required vast numbers of people with minimal education: how to differentiate between those who were to receive only four years and those who were to receive eight, or ten, or twelve, years ? The middle classes, through their professional associations and links to the upper classes, strove for their children to be part of the elite private school system, since after all it was a human right for some to join the elite. Thus, in the late nineteenth century, Roseworthy College, the School of Mines and Industries, and the Advanced School for Girls were set up, all in the period 1879 to 1889.
But the bottle-neck was occurring between primary school and these institutions. Not only that, but the rapid expansion of the education system after the Education Act was established revealed a drastic shortage of teachers, even with the pupil-teacher system in full swing, whereby a bright child would be contracted for four or five years after finishing primary school to work under a headmaster, pass annual exams, and then take over their own classes. (Point McLeay School was taught by such teachers right up until 1951). This practice deprived the system of an educated class of teachers and, according to Austin, ‘starved the universities of talent’ (1961: 233-234). That is, without a workable secondary school system between primary and university education, the economic and administrative systems of society could not function. Relying on the private schools was increasingly inadequate. The questions then were: who should have access to a public secondary system, and how do we justify keeping out the others ?
After 1898 , it was compulsory for all primary schools with more than forty students to offer a Class Five. After 1909, all schools with more than forty students had to offer a Class Six. Even so, there were constant attempts to introduce technical, or industrial, or ‘practical’ subjects into the curriculum for working-class children, and of course, needlework and cooking for girls. In other words, to offer a ‘different’ curriculum for ‘different’ children, one ‘more suited to their needs’. Of course, we today can easily see through this attempt to pass off an inferior education as ‘different’, or ‘relevant’, or ‘appropriate’. But in those days, dominated groups were offered a poor choice: no education or education adapted to your needs ?
However, on the whole, the unions and working class families resisted any attempt to introduce technical education into the primary curriculum (Miller, 1986: 107-108). After the turn of the century, the demand for some secondary education for all children grew rapidly. The Adelaide Pupil-Teachers’ School, the training ground for teachers, was converted into the first public secondary school in 1908, followed slowly by a small handful of others in middle class areas, Unley, Norwood and Marion. Fortunately for South Australia’s elitism and class structure, working class areas were geographically well-defined, so a system of technical schools could be eventually introduced to which their children could be directed. Zoning also ensured that middle-class children had access to the secondary schools, while working-class children were restricted, on the whole, to technical schools.
The system of secondary education was slowly extended into rural areas, with specialised agricultural high schools at key country towns, such as Murray Bridge. For Aboriginal children, such as those at Point McLeay, distance and remoteness from even these schools made access difficult. As we shall see, other factors were introduced which made it impossible, and ensured that Ngarrindjeri children did not begin attending secondary school until the 1950s, generations after white working-class children. The different classes in white society, ruling and working class, urban and rural, made their mutual compromises throughout those generations, compromises which did not have to pay the slightest attention to the requirements of Aboriginal children.

The Federation of White Australian States, 1901

In 1894, women in South Australia over the age of twenty one were granted the right to vote on the same conditions as men, the first jurisdiction in the world to do so. Aboriginal people, on certain conditions, could also vote, men and women: in 1896, at the state elections, Point McLeay adults turned out to vote at twice the average rate of other electors.

Simultaneously, white Australians from all states were campaigning for a united Australia, a federation of Australasian states, with state governments responsible for local matters, but a federal government responsible for national matters, such as defence, foreign affairs and immigration. At conventions around the country, the arguments for and against federation were soon replaced by arguments over who would be included and who would be excluded from such a federation. Proposals for federation included both major islands of New Zealand, and white-dominated colonies such as Papua and Fiji. But since such a federation was to be democratic, with all citizens equally able to participate, the involvement of these last two states had to be ruled out. (Palmer, 1966: 143-152).
The involvement of Aboriginal people was to be avoided by the simple expedient of allowing states to keep total control of Aboriginal affairs: no Aboriginal people could vote in federal elections unless they were already enrolled in state elections, and no new names were to be added to state electoral rolls for some sixty years. Formal but substantially empty as voting in an election may well be, but the symbolic exclusion of Aboriginal people from the right to vote had an obvious relationship to the material exclusion of Aboriginal people from all significant rights.