Western Australia’s Government schools are to receive significant boosts to their online bandwidths early next year in recognition of the growing practice of schools accessing online learning materials.
Minister for Education and Training, Sue Ellery said the Department of Education had signed a $130 million extension on its telecommunications contract with Telstra to deliver higher-speed fibre and better internet access to 350,000 students, teachers and other school staff across WA.
Ms Ellery said that under the new arrangements, the base bandwidth for every student and staff member in the State schools would increase from 100 kilobits-per-second (kBs) to an average of 2 Megabits-per-second (Mbps).
When complete, she said schools that currently had limited bandwidth would be able to run simultaneous online learning and activities in a number of classrooms without ‘lag’.
“Student demand to access learning materials online has more than doubled over the past 18 months,” Ms Ellery said.
“This agreement means more than 97 per cent of public schools will receive an average bandwidth increase of more than 20 times, with many receiving much higher increases,” she said.
“It will provide modern and immersive learning opportunities for students, and bring equity in bandwidth between metropolitan and regional schools and their communities.”
Ms Ellery said the difference will be most significant in regional towns which could see the entire local community and other Government Agencies benefit.
“The Department of Education will continue to work towards improving the telecommunications services in 23 very remote schools that are still reliant on satellite-based services,” Ms Ellery said.
