FIFTH COMMONWEALTH EDUCATION CONFERENCE
CANBERRA, ACT 3 FEBRUARY 1971
2n~ ing LA : S bthfe~ Prnim Miite, Mr. L h~ rton
Your Excellencies, Honourable Ministers, Mr Secretary-General, Ladies and
Gentlemen It is an honour for me to be opening this Conference and to be welcoming
to Canberra so many distinguished educators from so many parts of the world.
On behalf of the Australian Government, I extend a warm welcome to our
overseas guests and to our owfl State Ministers and leading educators from within
Australia. This is the first time a Commonwealth Education Conference has been held
in Australia and there will be stimulation and benefit for mainy of us in what you discuss.
I am sure that a sound basis of co-operation already exists among all those present.
In many ways, this F ifth Commonwealth Education Conference is a more
accurate reflection of the benefits of the Commonwealth of Nations than the recent
Heads of Government Meeting in Singapore. It is the co-operation that takes place on
the practical level in education and in countless other fields that gives this unique
free association of nations its durability and its strength.
It is not realistic to expect thirty-one diverse nations to be able to reach
a consensus of opinion on highly controversial political issues, nor is it realistic
to assume that if they do reach a consensus it in any way affects those who are not
part of that consensus. But 1. would further say that unanimous viewpoints and attitudes
are not necessary for a successful Commonwealth reiationship.
Unftortunately, though understandably, it is the periodic Heads of Government
Meeting and the inevitable political stresses and strains that attract most publicity.
To many people these summit gatherings are the Commonvwealth. Well, they are
certainly important and I suppose they represent the ultimate in the Commonwealth's
political activities. But it is the many practical strands running beneath the surface that form
the basic fabric of the Commonwealth. And that is why I am particularly glad to be
here, because this Conference, less than two weeks after Singapore, helps to put the
whole concept of the Commonwealth in perspective.
It is in the field of education among others that a great deal has been done
which has been of mutual advantage for Commonwealth members. And this Conference
is a tangible demonstration that the Commonwealth of Nations does work, that it is
of practical value, and that when we get together, our meetings aren't always political,
but are often designed to come to grips with issues of common concern, such as the
education of our various peoples.
After all, so much of the future of all our countries depends on education.
When we remember that one in every four people in the world today lives in a
Commonwealth country, it comes home with dramatic force, I think, that the
Commonwealth of Nations as a free assembly can do much for the common good by
such exchanges of views and experiences at practical levels as will take place here
during this Conference.
In that particular field of education, the Commonwealth has a really
worthwhile role to play. It is an activity which goes on year in and year out, important
to all our welfare as individual countries, and to the Commonwealth itself, concerned
as it is with democracy and liberty.
And liberty is more than the freedom of the market-place. Liberty of
the mind is perhaps ultimately the key to our survival. And to allow liberty of the
mind to have a full flowering is the-task, the ideal of the educator in all countries,
for education is the great liberator, and from properly educated minds flows
understanding which is the basis of co-operation and progress in so many other
fitelds. We I4ave our problems in Australia, as you have yours. There is in this
country, an endless pressure on our education systems. More of our people are
wanting more education, and more are wanting higher education, and more of our
young people are staying at school longer. In fact, the number staying on beyond
the compulsory age has doubled in the last decade.
There is a ceaseless demand for more teachers, and for teachers w~ ho are
said to require much higher qualifications are said to require. And on top of it all,
there is a questioning of old methods, and a searchin-g for new ones, as our society
at all its levels recognises great changes resulting from technological progress and
from different attitudes of mind, particularly among the younger generation different
attitudes of mind, different desires as to what will provide a good life, a questioning
of whe ther purely material things are as important as perhaps they were thought
by past generations. So no longer are the old methods and the old standards good enough. The
times are too demanding. The challenge is real. We are constantly endeavouring
to match needs to resources which I note is your theme at this Conference but, at
any rate in Australia, we also have to bear in mind the need to match resources to
needs and this may not be quite so easy or lead to quite so quick a progress as we
would like. But we have made a lot of progress in expanding our education systems
in Australia. Under our Federal system, the prime responsibility for educations ic
with State Governments, but the Commonwealth Government is deeply involved,
directly and indirectly. And I have considerable first-hand knowledge of this
involvement for I was the first Minister for Education and Science in the Commonwealth. o / 3
We are spending on education more than fIive times as much per head of
population as we were spending a decade ago. It has gone up from $ 4-2 per head of
population to $ 25 per head of population.... a much bigger population.
This year, just over four per cent of total Federal Government expenditure
is specifically for education, while on top of that, the Australian States are now
committing about one-third of their total revenues and loan expenditure to this field.
They have more than doubled their expenditure per head of population in the last
decade. So while there are always newspaper headlines which tell us there is
a " Crisis in Education", we are, I believe, making progress. We don't measure
progress simply by the increased amount of money. It is how, where and why it is
spent that matters. And here the need for flexibility is, I think, of very great
importance. None of us can freeze old systems of education in a world in a ferment
of change. So here in my country, we are seeking new ways of co-operation with
Australian States. With them we are looking at the standards of the curriculum in
our schools, to see where jointly we can do things better. Wie have looked, and hellped,
in science education and in technical education, and in the building of teacher colleges,
in such things as the teaching of Asian languages, and in other fields. This is goixng
on all the time. It is not goi:-g on as quickly as educators would like probably not
nearly as quickly. It is perhaps not going on nearly as quicly as the population would
like, but it is going on, and improvements are made year by year.
At the tertiary level, we now have here colleges of advanced education as an
alternative to universities not as institutions which provide a lesser brand of
education, but as institutions which are alternatives in that they provide a slightly
different approach to studies in tertiary fields. They are geared more directly to
the specific needs of industry and commerce, and I think they will prove to be a most
signicant development in tertiary education in Australia in this decade.
And for ourselves, -we have in our Budget this year to assist in
Commonwealth educational co-operation, a sum of some $ 890, 000.
Now, Sir, I think I have said quite enough. You will no doubt hear much
more of these matters from the experts here as your Conference proceeds. And
so all that remains for me to do is to wish good luck and success to the Conference
and to declare it open.