The main part of this study was written just as the Australian
Government announced its new Participation and Equity Programme
(P.E.P.) aimed at increasing the number of students staying on at
school as post-compulsory students to Year 12. Under the programme
schools were to be funded to develop programmes aimed at providing
students, who would normally have left school at age 15 or 16
relatively unqualified and unskilled, with qualifications and skills
that would give them entry to employment. The objectives, as stated,
were to encourage · all students to stay on at school until they had
completed a full secondary education or its equivalent, and to ensure
that the education and training would offer all the students the
opportunity to develop their individual talents and abilities and
thereby ensure more equitable outcomes to education (Commonwealth
Schools Commission, 1987:145)
