Post-school Education and Work: The Depression Years in Western Australia

Abstract

From an examination of developments in post-school education in Western Australia during the Great Depression, explanations are sought for disillusionments at the time with the State's education system and also for subsequent policies to impose accountability and economy upon educational institutions and foster a utilitarian emphasis in the curriculum. Royal Commissions by Justice A. Wolff — on Youth Employment and the Apprenticeship System and on the Administration of the University of Western Australia — are vital to an understanding of community attitudes and later developments in post-school education policy. Community attitudes in the thirties bear a remarkable resemblance to attitudes during the recession of the seventies.