SA State Budget 2016: Millions for South Australian schools to create new classrooms for STEM students
STUDENTS across the state will get brand new laboratories in a push “to get kids clamouring” to study science, technology, engineering and maths.
STUDENTS at 139 public schools across the state will be able to use new science and technology laboratories in a push by the State Government to “get kids clamouring” to study those subjects.
Over the next three years, $250 million will be spent upgrading or building new science, technology, engineering or mathematics (STEM) labs at 77 primary and 44 secondary schools.
Treasurer Tom Koutsantonis said about $106 million of the funding would be spent in regional or rural schools.
Construction work on the first classrooms is expected to begin by the end of this year.
“The economy is changing. The skills young South Australians will need going forward are changing,” Mr Koutsantonis said.
“The only way we’re going to get young people excited about these subjects is to create an exciting (learning) environment.
“We need the latest equipment, the latest technology on offer.
“What is the point of winning the Future Submarines project if the people who get jobs there aren’t South Australians?”
A report released in May by PwC found 70 per cent of Australian employers identified STEM skills as important and shifting just one per cent of the workforce into related roles could add $57.4 billion to Australia’s GDP.
Mr Koutsantonis added that the school upgrades would stimulate the state’s construction sector.
Students at private schools will also be able to access new facilities through a $250 million low-interest loan program.
It will allow independent and Catholic schools to borrow money for new infrastructure projects over the next five years at the lower interest rate offered to Government.
Mr Koutsantonis described the loan offer as a “dramatic shift in Government policy” but argued it would ensure every student had the same opportunities.
“This money is not going to go to elite schools that have vast endowments and amounts of money,” he said.
Instead, it should benefit private schools where “restrictive borrowing requirements”made such an investment difficult.
“In the end their parents are taxpayers too — why should they miss out,” Mr Koutsantonis said.
The State Budget also allocated $10.6 million over five years to modernise the SA Certificate of Education to allow electronic exams and assessments.
This is expected to cut the cost of the current manual system which involves packaging and moving about 42,000 envelopes and papers in more than 12,000 plastic bags of student work.
Other education Budget measures include:
$17.8 million to start work on the new CBD high school in 2016-17.
$1.15 million to replace school buses.
$37.8 million over four years to ensure there is one early childhood educator for every 10 children in disadvantaged public pre-schools and one educator for every 11 children in other centres.