Page 3387 - Week 08 - Tuesday, 17 August 2010
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30 additional wireless access points to six secondary school sites. This will allow the full utilisation of the laptops purchased under the federal government’s national secondary schools computer fund. This will lead to the expansion of wireless capacity in schools as more federally funded laptops and notebooks are added to our network.
As part of educating young Canberrans on the use of ICT in their everyday life, year 11 and 12 students can view their grades online through their school network. More recently, the 2009-10 ACT budget provided $5 million over three years for the capital classroom information and communication technologies project. In addition, significant recurrent funding has been provided for ongoing technical support for these new technologies.
This project will further improve student access to ICT in ACT public primary schools by replacing old computers and installing new interactive whiteboards. The initiative will deliver a ratio of one computer to every six students and one interactive whiteboard in every second classroom. Computers more than four years old will be replaced in the first stages and an additional number of new computers will be added to achieve the desired ratio. All schools will benefit over the life of the project as funds are used to replace ageing equipment.
Again, this initiative is consistent with the federal government’s secondary schools benchmark of four years as an acceptable age for computers in schools before they must be replaced. So, after 12 years of the federal Liberal government treating education as a political football, in the space of three years the territory and federal governments have been able to work together to deliver better ICT equipment for ACT students and we hope that the opportunity to continue this program will be there after this weekend.
MR SPEAKER: Ms Porter, a supplementary?
MS PORTER: Thank you, Mr Speaker. Can the minister advise what the ACT Labor government and federal Labor government have delivered for ACT students in partnership in the area of ICT?
MR BARR: Along with the federal government, we are investing in and delivering better ICT for our schools. Important, we are doing so in the area of superfast broadband—something that the Labor Party values and something that those opposite appear not to. Those opposite may not be aware that the delivery of the fibre optic cabling program to ACT public primary schools and secondary schools is now complete. All ACT public schools have a gigabit connection to the ACT government fibre network. One does not need to be a tech-head to understand the significance of that particular achievement here in the ACT and the fact that it is possible, and has been delivered already by a government in this country—again, contrary to the many and varied statements of a somewhat muddled Luddite who leads the federal Liberal Party. I can advise that 50 per cent of our preschools will be connected to their primary schools through this fibre network.
This program will enable significant cost savings over the life of the network, which has been estimated at 20 years. This does, importantly, set the groundwork for the
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