Australia, Gifted Education

Australia is an island continent comprising a federation of eight states and territories with a population in the region of 21 million; it has roughly the same land mass as the United States. The government school system is funded by both state and federal governments but centrally administered by the individual states; as a consequence, identification of, and catering for, gifted and talented children varies considerably throughout the country. Personal communications with gifted education managers within all state and territory departments of education have provided current information regarding the provisions for gifted and talented children throughout Australia.

At present there is no formal federal government legislation or policy addressing the education of these students, although there have been two small yet noteworthy funding initiatives at the ...