Building the Education Revolution
The Building the Education Revolution (BER) initiative is a critical component of the Commonwealth Government's economic stimulus package, giving our schools the attention they so richly deserve.
BER is delivering a $16.2 billion boost to the Government's Education Revolution over four years. Commenced in 2009, BER is providing new facilities and refurbishments for Australia's 9,540 schools.
Every Australian school has been able to access part of this Government investment package, which aims to fund schools to build and upgrade facilities which will be available for broader community use. These include 21st Century libraries, multi-purpose halls, secondary school science laboratories and language learning centres. This funding is helping to stimulate economies in local communities through the scale and pace of construction work undertaken.
When did BER start?
BER started early in 2009 with the first round of projects under the National Schools Pride (NSP) program commencing works in April. The NSP program is now complete.
Major infrastructure projects under the Primary Schools for the 21st Century (P21) program are well underway, with many projects complete, and the majority scheduled for completion by 31 March 2011.A small portion of the major infrastructure works have been earmarked for the 2011-12 financial year.
The timeline for the construction of new centres under the Science and Language Centres for 21st Century Secondary Schools (SLC) was December 2010.