Round Three of Primary Schools for the 21st Century announced

Friday, 28 August 2009

The Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Education, the Hon Julia Gillard, yesterday announced that 2,746 Australian primary schools would receive $4.6 billion for major infrastructure projects under the third and final Round of Primary Schools for the 21st Century (P21), a key element of the Building the Education Revolution (BER).

The Deputy Prime Minister was joined by Senator the Hon Mark Arbib, Minister Assisting the Prime Minister for Government Service Delivery, in making the announcement at St Mary’s Catholic Primary School in Dandenong, Victoria.

St Mary’s is just one of the many schools to benefit from the Australian Government’s stimulus funding injection. The School received $2 million under the P21 program for the construction of a new multipurpose hall.

The Deputy Prime Minister toured the site where the new hall is being built with students and the School’s Principal, Mr Greg White.

Mr White said “I have never seen this level of excitement among my colleagues in the wider the primary schools community. This level of funding and activity will likely never be seen again in their lifetime.”

“This hall will be used for much more than just performing arts, but also schools assemblies, class assemblies and outside community events,” Mr White explained.

Deputy Principal Ms Di Taranto explained that the whole school community is very excited to have the new hall, where they can have performing arts lessons, stage concerts, and have sports lessons when it’s raining, where previously they had no other area to do so.

Together with Rounds One and Two, P21 has now delivered $14.1 billion to 7,961 eligible primary schools for 10,701 projects to provide modern learning environments, while also supporting jobs at a local level.

Through this investment, schools just like St Mary’s will have access to state-of-the art libraries, multipurpose halls including gymnasiums, indoor sporting centres and assembly halls, new classrooms and covered outdoor learning areas.

Together with the State and Territory governments, school communities will be working on getting construction projects starting as soon as possible.

For a full list of Round Three schools visit www.buildingtheeducationrevolution.gov.au.

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