Education in Western Australia

Education in Western Australia consists of public and private schools in the state of Western Australia, including public and private universities and TAFE colleges. Public school education is supervised by the Department of Education, which forms part of the Government of Western Australia. The School Curriculum and Standards Authority is an independent statutory authority responsible for developing a curriculum and associated standards in all schools (public and private), and for ensuring standards of student achievement, and for the assessment and certification according to those standards.

Western Australia follows a three-tier system, consisting of primary education (primary schools), followed by secondary education (secondary schools or secondary colleges) and tertiary education (Universities and TAFE Colleges).

Education is compulsory in Western Australia between the ages of six and seventeen. From 1 January 2008 persons in their 17th year must be in school, training, or have a job until the end of that year.

The first schools started to appear during the 1830s throughout the state, in the form of one-teacher schools. The oldest government-sponsored education institution in Western Australia, Guildford Colonial School (now Guildford Primary School), was founded at the Swan River Colony in 1833, and consisted of several premises in the townsite before a purpose build school was constructed in 1870. From the 1850s schools became more common around Western Australia, with many of the teachers being sourced from educated convicts who had obtained their ticket of leave. Initially there were no official qualifications required to teach, only that a teacher be literate, and many schools were run by nuns or single women.

The first school in the state with a focus on educating Indigenous children, Annesfield, was opened in 1852 by clergyman John Wollaston and Anne Camfield in Albany.

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