AGY-1200 | Board of Technical Education

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The Board of Technical Education was appointed on 1 August 1883. (1) On 1 October 1883 the Technical College of the Sydney Mechanic's School of Arts (publicly funded for the four previous years), was transferred to the management of the Board of Technical Education. The courses offered and the instructional methods were in "accord with the practice of the City and Guilds of London Institute" with local modifications. (2) The Sydney Technical College contained 13 departments
* Agriculture, (agriculture, botany, and veterinary science)
* Applied Mechanics, (mechanical drawing, naval architecture, and metal-plate working)
* Art, (practical plane geometry, practical solid geometry, perspective model drawing, and freehand drawing)
* Architecture, (carpentry and joinery, masonry, bricklaying, carriage-building, plumbing and cabinet-making)
* Geology, (mineralogy and mining)
* Chemistry, (laboratory instruction in practical and theoretical chemistry and metallurgy)
* Commercial Economy (French, German, Latin, arithmetic, book-keeping, calligraphy, and correspondence)
* Mathematics (civil engineering, surveying, navigation, and actuarial science)
* Music (class singing and instruction in theory, harmony, and composition) 1884 only
* Elocution (the art of public speaking and reciting)
* Pharmacy (materia medica, and pharmacy)
* Physics (natural philosophy, optics, sound, electricity and telegraphy)
* Domestic Economy (cookery and household management) The Board of Technical Education extended "formal technical education to areas outside Sydney, with itinerant teachers engaged to visit country towns and deliver lectures". (3) Branch Technical Schools were established at Bathurst, Goulburn, Grafton, and Newcastle. (4) The final meeting of the Board was held on 6 November 1889. (5) On November 15 1889 the Board of Technical Education was dissolved by proclamation, with the administration of technical education transferred to the Technical Education Branch of the Department of Public Instruction. (6) Endnotes:
(1) NSW Government Gazette 1 August 1883, p.4173
(2) Report of the Minister for Public Instruction for the year ended 31 December 1884 in the Votes and Proceedings of the Legislative Assembly Second Session 1885 Volume 1, p.431
(3) Barcan, Alan A Short History of Education in New South Wales, Martindale Press, Sydney 1965 p.175
(4) Report of the Minister for Public Instruction for the year ended 31 December 1885 in the Votes and Proceedings of the Legislative Assembly Second Session 1885-86 Volume 4, p.48.
(5) Mandelson L.A 'Norman Selfe and the Beginnings of Technical Education', in Turney C., (Ed) Pioneers of Australian Education Volume 2 Studies of the Development of Education in the Australian Colonies 1850-1900 Sydney University Press, Sydney 1972 p.134.
(6) NSW Government Gazette, 15 November 1889, p.8141.