Inspectors of schools in the state education system of New South Wales, 1848-1971

Abstract

This dissertation deals with the antecedents, growth, purposes, practices and effects of the government school inspectorate in New South Wales as it developed from the beginnings of national education in Australia in 1848. The time-span for the study extends to 1971, a year that witnessed the presentation of ’’The Graham Report", a watershed document that was highly significant for subsequent changes in the nature and incidence of inspection and supervision of teachers and schools, especially for its promotion of advisory services for them in the public education system of the State. Important changes in the structure and operation of the State’ s public school system between 1848 and 1971 are also highlighted in these pages because of their connection with the role of the inspectors in the education system's supervisory and administrative processes. For similar reasons the thesis deals additionally with some of the leading personalities associated with the system's administration and inspection in New South Wales during the long period under review. Attention is also paid in a thematic manner to other matters connected with inspectors and inspection in this State, such as the failure of local management and supervision of schools and teachers, the selection and preferment of inspectors and the place of women in the inspectorate. As well, throughout the work there is an examination of how teachers themselves, collectively or personally, perceived the inspectors and inspection. The viewpoints of officialdom, academics and representative public criticism or support of government school education and inspection also receive space in this presentation. The thesis explores the traditional mores of religion and government in Great Britain as the background to the moves towards national education in New South Wales and how these were modif ied over the first sixty years of its colonial settlement. The dissertation shows that national education for the colony was finally based upon the freedom of conscience and the non-sectarian Christian principles and regulations that were the distinguishing marks of the centralised Irish National ("Lord Stanley's") school system for the people of Ireland. From its incorporation in 1831 the Irish National Board had been successfully employing Her Majesty's Inspectors (HMIs) to supervise its schools so as to maximise their efficiency and ensure their fiscal accountability. The Irish inspectorate is described as it was a model for the Board of National Education in New South Wales when it began to inspect its schools. The circumstances that led to the appointment of William Wilkins as the Boards' superintendent and first permanent inspector are dealt with as are Wilkins's concept of the "wise inspectorate". His ideals had been formulated by his mentor in England, Dr (later Sir and then Baron) James-Kay Shuttle worth who was the conceptualistic, administrative driving force for the Committee of the Privy Council on Education under which national education in England, Wales and Scotland was introduced in 1839. This dissertation traces the development of the inspectorate under the Board of National Education (1848-1846), the Council of Education (1867-1880) and the Department of Public Instruction, cum Education (1880- ) until 1971. Important parts of the thesis concern themselves with how Wilkins's ideal inspectorate became debased in its nineteenth century stern authoritarian pursuit of results, how and to what effect inspection altered with the introduction of the "new education" and the "new inspection" in 1904 and 1905 as part of the reforms of Frederick Bridges and Peter Board during the first two decades of the new century. The upgrading of teacher training which began then did not reach professional standards high enough to substantiate diminution in the need for frequent inspection of teachers until after World War II. The faults and the good features of the inspection system are acknowledged throughout this thesis which concludes with an affirmation of truth in the hypotheses on which it was based, namely: (1) that Australia's historical, sociological and geophysical circumstances made the creation and operation of an inspectorate primarily necessary as part of the centralised authority that was formed to provide efficient government schools for the people; and (2) that on the whole the inspection scheme that has been identified with government schools since they were first systematised in New South Wales in 1848 under the Board of National Education has had more positive virtues than negative consequences for Australian education