and only today march 6 have the rest of the world, journalists, politicians caught onto it.. gosh some people are so slow!
Rudd's computer pledge unplugged
Article from:March 06, 2008 12:00am
THE nation's neediest high schools will get money to buy 100,000 computers before June 30 but the Rudd Government cannot say who will pay for the powerpoints to plug them in.
The schools who benefit from the first instalment of the $1 billion program will not get the promised ratio of one computer for every senior student.
Instead, the ratio will be one computer for every two students in Years 9 to 12.
These schools will have to wait till 2010 to get one computer per student.
The first round of funding will go to the nation's neediest 937 high schools.
Public schools will get 70 per cent of the funding, Catholic schools 20 per cent and independent schools 10 per cent.
While the $1 billion program has been widely welcomed, Labor backbenchers have warned ministers that schools are not equipped to handle the extra technology.
Most do not have enough powerpoints in classrooms to plug in the new computers. And a survey of teachers this year found two-thirds needed more training on using computers in the classroom.
Education Minister Julia Gillard yesterday refused to say who would pay for the computers to be installed.
"We are working with our state and territory colleagues to make sure computers are in settings in which they can be used," Ms Gillard said.
1 comment:
Well.. if the schools are left short and need plugs.. I'm sure they'll resort to the usual fundraisers. It would have been good from the get-go to know how these computers would be installed. Jenna has only ever been in Catholic/Independent schools and they have *always* complained (or made us parents aware) about the lack of govt funding they get.
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