THE LOCUS OF POWER IN GOVERNMENT ADMINISTRATION OF EDUCATION IN NINETEENTH CENTURY WESTERN AUSTRALIA AFTER 1871 Available to Purchase

This article provides a brief account of the role of district boards of education in Western Australia, especially during the years 1871 to 1895. These boards were modelled on the English school boards set up under the Forster Act of 1870 and some attempt is made to explain why the original aim of decentralized decision‐making, along similar lines, eventually failed in the colony. The discussion is briefly placed within the context of other discussions of the early development of centralized administration in the eastern colonies and in Australia generally. An assessment is also made of the relevance to the particular case of Western Australia of some of the arguments previously advanced to account for the growth of centralized administrations.