Volume 4, Number 1 (January - March 2009)

Victoria in Australia is one of the schools systems which encouraged schools to develop more open school cultures supported by school committees, clubs and councils with community representatives since 1958. In the early 1970s, school administration was decentralized into several regions by posting bureaucrats with delegated authority to the newly created regions. In 1976, mandatory, corporate governing body-type school councils were established based on the Education (School Councils) Act of 1975. In 1980, resulting from a prolonged industrial dispute; an employee of a school was debarred from being elected as the council president of the same school, vesting the day-to-day administration in the hands of the school principal in the capacity of CEO of the school. In 1984, the authority and responsibility of councils were further strengthened based on the Education (School Councils) Amendment Act of 1983. In 1993, the Schools of the Future (SOF) reforms with negotiated charters between schools and communities were introduced. In 1999, a UNESCO, publication claimed that the Victorian SBM enhanced by SOF represented one of the most comprehensive strategies at school decentralization for higher student performance attempted anywhere in the world. In 2003, Victorian Government Blue-Print further strengthened school based governance (SBG). In 2004, Victorian schools system claimed that it is a world leader in SBG and in 2006, with the enactment of the Education and Training Reforms Act, SBG was further consolidated. In 2007, on a fact finding visit by a team of OECD experts confirmed the claims made in 1999 and 2004. ACCESS FULL MANUSCRIPT NERE: http://cnx.org/content/m18836/latest/