Digital Education Revolution

The Australian Government is committing new funding of $1 billion over four years to provide:

• through the National Secondary School Computer Fund, grants of up to $1 million for schools to assist them to provide for new or upgraded information and communications technology (ICT) for secondary students in Years 9 – 12; and

• a contribution of up to $100 million for the provision of high-speed fibre-to-the-premises (FTTP) broadband connections to Australian schools.

Broadband Fibre to Schools

The Australian Government has allocated $100 million to contribute to the provision of fibre-to-the-premises (FTTP) broadband connections to Australian schools to deliver internet download speeds of up to 100 megabits per second.

A detailed plan for the delivery of fibre connections to Australian schools will be developed by the Department of Education, Employment and Workplace Relations in consultation with the Department of Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy (DBCDE) and its National Broadband Network (NBN) program. The Government is committed to providing $4.7 billion towards the roll out of the NBN.

An inter-departmental committee will facilitate coordination of the broadband fibre to schools initiative at the Australian Government level and formal consultation mechanisms will be established to ensure state and territory school jurisdictions, independent and Catholic school systems and other stakeholders are engaged in the implementation of this initiative.

Implementation of the broadband fibre to schools will be closely coordinated with the rollout of the NBN by the DBCDE.

At this stage it is not possible to be precise about timeframes for the roll out of this initiative. The NBN roll out will lead to the wide spread deployment of optical fibre in Australian cities, regional centres and towns. Provision of fibre connections to schools will, in many cases, be dependent on the roll out of the NBN.

Information on the timeframe for the roll out of the NBN will be provided by the DBCDE. The first stage will involve the establishment of an independent expert panel to manage the process of inviting proposals to build the network.

Related Links

• Community of Integrated Networks - C.O.I.N.s

• Federal Government - Digital Education Revolution