By Parker McKenzie
The Victorian 2022/23 budget has allocated $1.8 billion for building new schools and upgrading existing facilities, with a focus on upgrading special schools.
The budget has allocated $581 million to build 13 new schools and complete additional stages at four others and $560 million to upgrade 65 schools — including $326 million for 36 special schools.
One of the schools benefiting from this is Eastern Ranges School in Ferntree Gully, which has received $5.7 million in funding to upgrade and modernise its facilities.
In his budget speech in State Parliament, Treasurer Tim Pallas said no matter their background or their postcode, the government wants every child to have world-class schooling.
“Since 2014, this government has employed nearly 10,000 new teachers. This budget continues that commitment to learning and growth,” he said.
“We promised in 2018 to open a hundred new schools cross our state by 2026, we are ahead of schedule to deliver.”
The budget includes $779 million in investment towards recruiting 1900 more teachers throughout the state. Another $173 million will be spent supporting teachers with initiatives and funding including $104 million to upgrade school software and $33 million to expand teacher education.
$15 million has been allocated to delivering “kinder kits” to children starting three-year-old kindergarten in 2023 and 2024, which includes books, puppets and games to supplement learning.
$131 million has been allocated to continue four-year-old kindergarten services, $19 million for the LOOKOUT program to support children in out of home care access to kindergarten and transition to school, $17 million to assist children with significant disabilities or complex needs participating in kindergarten, $12 million for accessibility improvements to kindergarten facilities, $5.5 million for early childhood language programs, $4 million for targeted outreach support for culturally and linguistically diverse children and $2.2 million to provide free or low-cost kindergarten for vulnerable children.
Alongside VCAL and VCE reforms, the State Government has also allocated $131 million for extra literacy and numeracy support for students, $37 million to support programs supporting high ability students, $24 million to support English as an additional language program, $17 million to extend mathematics and science initiatives to train primary school teachers as specialists and $5.2 million to establish the regional blended learning hub for subjects schools couldn’t previously provide.
$3.7 million has been invested into supporting cyber safety for students.
$277 million will be spent facilitating the reforms to VCE and VCAL, including $88 million to hire more vocational teachers and support staff while aiding students access vocational and applied learning, $69 million to expand school-based apprenticeship and traineeships to support students complete their senior secondary certificate while also completing a qualification, and $34 million in funding to support government school teachers implementing the new curriculum and support non-school secondary providers transition to the new model.
