Peter Garrett (Kingsford Smith, Australian Labor Party, Minister for School Education, Early Childhood and Youth) Share this | Hansard source

The National Broadband Network is going to give every school in Australia access to high-speed broadband. The fact is that a national broadband network delivering decent speeds will be terrific for students and for teachers. It will be terrific for students because they will get the opportunity to learn and cooperate with each other and to access resources from around Australia and, indeed, from around the world. For example, students in regional and remote Australia can use the NBN to get access to specialist teachers that they might not otherwise be able to access—music teachers, vocational education teachers and language teachers. They will also have the opportunity to get immediate feedback from those teachers with live, interactive videoconferencing. This kind of learning is just not possible without the type of high-speed access that the National Broadband Network will provide. Imagine a class in Alice Springs being able to interact in real time with a class in Hobart—broadening their horizons and learning from one another. Students will also be able to link up with other resources, such as from the collection of the Australian War Memorial or NASA. All of these possibilities will deepen the learning experiences that students will have and will be available to students no matter where they live.

Faster, more reliable broadband will also naturally be of great benefit to our teachers, supporting this government’s agenda of improving teacher quality, by enabling them to understand the professional issues that are in front of them and to get the additional learning that they need through virtual workshops and virtual seminars. Sharing the best in teacher resources will greatly help our teachers as well.

Access to a computer is critical with the National Broadband Network. That is why the government is investing over $2 billion over seven years to achieve a one-to-one computer to student ratio for years 9 to 12 by the end of 2011, with a delivery, importantly, of over 345,000 computers to secondary schools and approved funding for over 740,000 computers. Computers are changing the way that kids learn. Imagine how much more impact this will have once students are hooked up to the NBN. As well, we will make sure that Australia’s first-ever national curriculum is fully online. Again, teachers will have the opportunity to use the NBN to access all kinds of teaching resources to support them in teaching the national curriculum.

Finally, we are investing some $40 million in a digital strategy for teachers and for school leaders. This is providing teachers with the ICT skills that they will need so that they can better set up learning in their classrooms. Incidentally, for country teachers and principals, in particular, the NBN will be of huge benefit. That is something I know members of this House agree with and understand. The fact is that, with a computer in the classroom and the NBN at the front door, schools will be well prepared to meet the challenges of the 21st century and we will give every school the opportunity through this resourcing to be a great school.

See this speech in context