The Council was to assume the functions of the Teachers and Schools Registration Board in their entirety, becoming responsible for the registration of teachers and schools and the keeping and publishing of the registers of teachers and schools. A Registration Committee of the Council became responsible for determining whether a teacher was to be registered as a sub-primary, primary or secondary teacher or a teacher of a special subject or subjects and whether a school was to be registered as being sub-primary, primary or secondary or some combination of these.

Additional functions of the Council were:

to report to the Minister upon methods or developments in public education in other countries which it might be desirable to introduce in Victoria
;report upon matters of public education referred to it by the Minister and
to report upon the conditions under which teachers registered as secondary should be appointed as teachers in higher elementary schools or in district high schools.