History
History
Evening and Community Colleges or their predecessors have been part of the NSW Education system since the 1880 Education Act when night schools were formalised as the adult part of the public education system. At various points in our educational history, Evening and Community Colleges have played important societal roles.
Post World War One, for instance, Evening and Community Colleges played a significant role in the retraining and resettlement of returned soldiers. Literacy and Adult Basic Education have always featured high in the achievements of Evening and Community Colleges as has the Teaching of English as a Second Language to Adult Migrants.
Prior to the addition of Further Education, which is the “FE” in TAFE, Evening and Community Colleges assisted adult students gain school qualifications and to prepare for the Public Service Entrance and other examinations.
In recent years, especially the last decade, Evening and Community Colleges have substantially achieved one of the largest technical up-skilling events in our history; large parts of a whole generation, not previously familiar with computers in the work place, have been trained in their operation and application for the first time.
There have been various research projects that have tried to estimate the strength and worth of the effort of Community Colleges specifically and Adult and Community Education (ACE), more generally. Of these, the Commonwealth Senate enquiry into Adult Education titled “Come in Cinderella” was the most significant. A recent iteration of that report, “Beyond Cinderella: Towards a Learning Society” noted:
"Lifelong learning has been a major theme in education policy debate stimulated by UNESCO’s Institute of Education, and is bound up with the promotion of the learning society. In the Committee’s view, both notions must guide the development of education and training policy in Australia.
A national education and training system which is based on lifelong learning principles will provide educational opportunities which will:
- last the whole life of each individual;
- lead to the systematic acquisition, renewal, upgrading and completion of knowledge, skills and attitudes made necessary by the constantly changing conditions in which people now live;
- have as its ultimate goal the self-fulfilment of each individual;
- be dependent for its successful implementation on people’s increasing ability and motivation to engage in self-directed learning activities;
- acknowledge the contribution of all available educational influences, including formal, non formal and informal.
The Committee’s affirmation of lifelong learning as the fundamentally necessary attribute of Australia’s national education and training system is based on the understandings set out above. These principles must be placed in the foreground of any policy development process aimed at the creation of a learning society. In the Committee’s view, the ACE sector has successfully integrated these principles into its structure and practice. The Committee has formulated its recommendations about policy and funding arrangements with a view to securing, at government level, a commitment to lifelong learning principles as an integral part of education policy."
During the 1970’s and partly because of the rise of TAFE, the popularity of Evening Colleges waned to the point where many Colleges became un-viable. After intervention from the then Board of Adult Education, Colleges were amalgamated and made into self managing Community Based Organisations. Since that change, Community Colleges and in particular, Sydney Communitry College, have exhibited enormous growth.