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Gillard's round two rains PCs on schools

Acting Prime Minister Julia Gillard announced round two of the National Secondary School Computer Fund today, saying it would deliver 141,600 new computers to 1,394 schools around the country.
Written by Alex Serpo, Contributor

Acting Prime Minister Julia Gillard announced round two of the National Secondary School Computer Fund today, saying it would deliver 141,600 new computers to 1,394 schools around the country.

The $141 million cash injection forms part of the Federal Government's plan to spend $2 billion over six years for new ICT equipment for secondary schools in Australia. The Labor Government hopes this will result in a one-to-one ratio of PCs to students in years 9 to 12 nationally by 2011.

The purpose of round two funding is to give all schools in Australia the opportunity to obtain funds to reach the interim ratio of one computer for every two students.

The majority of the round two funding will go to Victoria and Queensland, with 397 Victorian and 363 Queensland schools receiving funding in this latest round. NSW will receive funding for an additional 180 schools.

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Acting Prime Minister Julia Gillard
(Credit: Australian Labor Party)

In addition to the new PCs, the Queensland's Department of Education and Training (DETA) recently signed a five-year contract with network giant 3Com to supply fast wireless access to Queensland schools.

The NSW Government is currently in the process of tendering for a $200 million roll-out of 20,000 netbooks as well as the wireless networks and services to support them.

In the previous 12 months, the Labor Government has approved funding for almost 260,000 new computers in government, Catholic and independent secondary schools nationwide.

In addition to the funding for PCs for schools, the Federal Government is also providing $100 million for fibre connections to schools, $32.6 million for the creation of online curriculum tools, and additional funding for teacher ICT training.

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