Page 11 - J Delaney - City of Cessnock Education and Schools

6.

E DUC AT I 0 N

'Lands Act'. This new Schools Act replaced both the Board of National
Education, and the Denominational Schools Board with a single Council
of Education.

With this new Act, as from 1st January 1867, all National Schools
were re-named "Public Schools". The new Council of Education took over
259 National Schools attended by 19,641 pupils and 310 Denominational
Schools attended by 27,986 pupils. It also lowered the minimum number of
pupils required for a public school from 30 to 25. In addition,it created
two new kinds of schools. The first was the "Provisional School", where
attendances were likely to be between 15 and 25. The second type of school
was under the charge of an itinerant or travelling teacher. In the early
stages of . this new method of schooling, some teachers had as many as seven

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schools on their circuit. In 1869, the Council of Education restricted the
number of schools for such teachers to two . They soon became known as
'Half-Time' schools. Each such 'half-time' school required at least 10
children pupils before it could be established. Parents were expected to
provide the site, the necessary school buildings and furniture. This last
condition continued until 1875.

The 'Public Instruction Act of 1st May, 1880' also made some very
significant changes. One of the important alterations was the replacement
of the Council of Education by the Department of Instruction. (Note: In
1915, the Minister of Education issued instructions for the Department to
be known in future as the 'Department of Education'. However, legislative
sanction of this change of name was not ratified until 1957). The
Department of Instruction took over from the Council of Education the
following schools:-

705 Public Schools with 68,823 pupils
8,312 pupils
313 Provisional Schools with 1,683 pupils
22' 716 pupils
97 Half-Time Schools with

105 Denominational Schools with

Total 1,220 Schools 101,534 pupils