Fitting or being fitted : participation, equity and the dominant curriculum

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)