Building the Education Revolution
BER stands for Building the Education Revolution initiative which is a critical component of the Government's economic stimulus package, giving our schools the attention they so richly deserve.
BER will deliver a $14.7 billion boost to the Government's Education Revolution over the next three financial years. BER begins this year and will provide new facilities and refurbishments for Australia's 9,540 schools.
Every Australian school will be 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 will help to stimulate economies in local communities through the scale and pace of construction work undertaken.
When will BER start?
BER will start immediately with the first round of projects under the National Schools Pride (NSP) program to commence by April-May 2009.
The first round of major infrastructure projects under the Primary Schools for the 21st Century (P21) program must be completed by 20 Dec 2010.
The building of new centres under the Science and Languages (SLC) program will be fast-tracked to be completed in 2010.