VPRS 13579 Teacher Record Books

Full description

These records were created to provide a summary of the working history of each teacher in government service in Victoria. In 1862, the Board of Education was founded after the Denominational School Board and National School Board were abolished. This series was created by the Board of Education in 1863 (and continued to be maintained after the Education Department succeeded it in 1873). In the period between 1863 and 1873, denominational schools in fact fell under the government's jurisdiction and thus their employees were government employees that were registered in the teacher record books.

Upon the 1873 establishment of the Education Department, and reflecting its commitment to free, compulsory and secular education, government funding to these denominational schools was cut. Such schools were given the choice of either remaining under government control (where government teachers were now to be made public servants, in a special category) or of becoming self-funded. Not surprisingly, given the greater security provided by the public service, most teachers from denominational schools became public servants, either remaining with their schools that were to forgo their religious ties or leaving denominational schools and finding employment in their government counterparts. From the period 1872-1877, 'capitation grants' were offered to denominational schools in order for this transition to be made more easily and decisions to made on the schools' future over a more reasonable time period.

The Department stopped creating teacher record books in 1959, replacing them with teacher record cards (and, most recently, computerised records). Early teacher record books, however, retrospectively recorded information about teachers' careers predating 1863 and some later books record information postdating 1959.

Although the information contained within the volumes does change over the years, essentially each entry states:

The name of the teacher
Their date of birth
(Sometimes) Place of birth
Roll No. (the School Number)
Classification (this is that of the teacher, based on assessment, promotions etc.)
Authority (the date the teacher commenced at a particular school) and
Remarks.

Over the years other fields were added such as Qualifications and Assessments, capturing in abbreviated form the teacher's qualifications and in chronological order the various classifications achieved by that teacher.

Classification entries indicate when teachers were promoted to new positions (and therefore to a rise in salary). This was dependent on inspectors' reports, examinations and/or additional training or education.

Similarly, over time the Authority field may contain the dates a teacher was appointed and transferred to other schools. It may also record the dates a teacher's skills were examined by an inspector and the names of inspectors, or details of any training or tertiary education attended by the teacher.

The Remarks field may include dates the teachers were given a certain grade (A, B, C etc or 1 to 100) according to the inspector's view on teaching standards and a last entry relating to how the individual ended their teaching career (ie. Resigned, death, transferred on to subsequent card system etc). Also noted is the teacher's length of service and pension allocated to them. As aforementioned, in the first few units of the series, notes are made about employment prior to the time of recorded registration.

An entry reading "Transferred to Department Record" means that a continuation of the employee record is in VPRS 14440 Register of Professional Officers.

Other potential points of interest to researchers lie in appended newspaper clippings and photographs concerning individuals' marriages, divorces, deaths, court cases and service in the armed forces, notes concerning teacher training and education and links made between child and parent registrations.