Education in Australia is primarily the responsibility of the
states and territories. Each state or territory government provides funding and regulates the public and private schools within its governing area. The
federal government helps fund the public universities, but was not involved in setting university curriculum. As of 2012, the
Australian National Curriculum, under development and trial for several years, has already been adopted by some schools and will become mandatory soon. Generally, education in Australia follows the three-tier model which includes
primary education (primary schools), followed by
secondary education (secondary schools/high schools) and
tertiary education (Universities,
TAFE colleges and Vocation Education and Training providers/VET providers).