Victorian schools to be overhauled in landmark $3b budget package

More than 160 Victorian campuses will get an upgrade in a massive $3 billion package. Is your school one of them?

A school capital building program will revitalise more than 160 Victorian campuses in a massive $3bn infrastructure spend.

The landmark schools upgrade package included $1.3bn for new buildings, classrooms, gyms and learning areas for 123 mainstream schools and 39 specialist campuses.

“It's enormous,” said Victorian Association of State Secondary Principals president Sue Bell.

“It really is setting Victoria up for the future for education, because you can’t let buildings fall apart.

“A refresh, rebuild and refocus can do wonders for a school — it is critical.”

The $3bn schools build and upgrades program — with $1.9bn revealed in Tuesday’s budget and $1.1bn announced previously in the Building Works Package — dwarfs last year’s commitment of $1.82bn.

The biggest winner was Lalor Secondary, securing $26.2 million, followed by Exford Primary with $25.3m and Footscray High’s Kinnear Campus with $25m.

Fairhills High principal Harvey Wood had been waiting a decade for the $8.1m he secured.

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Laura, 12, Keira, 12, Vinul, 9, Maddy, 12 and Tanish, 9, at Bundoor Primary.

The cash, arriving just before he retires at the end of the year, will go towards a new Japanese-themed administration block in honour of the school introducing Japanese language to Melbourne in the early 1970s.

The old gym will also be transformed into a performing arts centre Mr Wood hoped would become a centrepiece for the local theatre community.

“In a way I’m sad, but in another way I’m very very happy for the school — it’s what you work for,” Mr Wood said.

Bundoora Primary principal Lee Pollard said a $9.1m win would “completely upgrade the school”.

“It was built in the 60s and we’re most definitely seeing a lot of signs of deterioration, so it’s timely,” she said.

Ms Pollard said “parents, students and staff, they’re absolutely thrilled to bits”.

More than $77m will be spent expanding seven primary schools in growth corridors to deal with higher enrolment numbers, including at Footscray Primary, Reservoir Primary and Templestowe Heights Primary. Land for 11 new schools will be bought up in growth areas of Cardinia, Casey, Hume, Melbourne, Melton and Wyndham.

It’s understood the state government is ahead in its schools blitz, promising to build 100 new campuses by 2026.

But school upgrades and new campuses weren’t the only big spend items in education. The Victorian Certificate of Applied Learning will be scrapped in a $38m revamp of vocational education.

VCAL will be merged with the VCE from 2023, with a completely new certificate to replace it by 2025. It follows a review that found young people needed better access to training that delivered in-demand skills and jobs.

A huge $1.6bn in school disability funding will overhaul the support for students with additional needs and $774m will go to early childhood education including free kinder in 2021

Vulnerable three-year-olds from refugee and asylum seeker backgrounds will be included in free kinder, as well as those in already funded programs and four-year-olds.

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