Education
14th February, 2013
$16 million "Tech Next" program to fast track professionals into teaching has attracted only 14 placements (Sentate Estimates)
$100 million of funding for schools under the Digital Education Revolution has not been paid because the forms have not been made available. No more money will be available for the program (Senate Estimates)
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21st January, 2013
Labor launches $5 million advertising campaign for its Schoolkids Bonus even though it is an automatic transfer to bank accounts (The Australian)
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20th November, 2012
MYEFO mini budget cut $3.9 billion from education and skills programs. Cuts included National Partnership for Teacher Quality, Trade Training Centres and scrapping the computers in school program
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11th October, 2012
Department admits it does not know how many of gonski's 41 recommendations have been accepted or how much they will cost. No negotiations have been held with the States to decide what they should contribute (Senate Estimates)
The $18.1 million ALP election commitment Tech Next has only six participants out of 450 promised (Senate Estimates)
With no more money for the Computers in Schools program, 65,000 computers will become obselete this year (Senate Estimates)
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30th September, 2012
Labor slashes funding for education revolution computers in schools maintenance, leaving piles of broken computers which can not be repaired. Labor claimed it delivered one million computers to schools but they included 250,000 computers already in schools in their count, some now up to eight years old
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23rd July, 2012
Gonski education funding reforms will cost $6.5 billion a year with states expected to pay 70% of the cost (The Australian)
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15th June, 2012
ANAO reports that Labor's $322 million literacy and numeracy program has failed to improve standards. At least three states failed to meet matching funding obligations. The program designed by Julia Gillard when she was Education Minister provided special funding to 1050 schools but the Auditor General could find no statistical evidence of improvement in numeracy and literacy standards (The Australian)
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4th June, 2012
Gillard Government seks to claw back $12 million paid to 33 schools for BER projects where the schools subsequently closed. A further 225 projects axed because of school closures or mergers. 12% of the $16 billion for 10,472 projects has not been spent three years later. 40 projects will not be completed by the final extended deadline (The Australian)
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23rd September, 2011
Government backs down on restrictions on foreign student visas and will now allow foreign students easy access to visas and a right to work for two years in Australia after their studies are completed
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14th September, 2011
Gillard Government backs down and restores Independent Youth Allowance to eligible students living in inner regional areas. Those who left school in 2009 and 2010 are still in limbo
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14th June, 2011
Government admits to Senate Estimates that it has quietly axed the $100 million Fibre Connection to Schools Program. The Program had been described as central to the Government's plan to connect school children to counterparts across the globe by then Minister Julia Gillard (The Australian)
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3rd June, 2011
$2 billion of Building the Education Revolution money still to be spent, two years after the end of the financial crisis that the $16.2 billion spending plan was intended to tackle
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2nd June, 2011
Some schools are charging up to $250 for students to use computers provided under National Secondary School Computer Fund (Senate Estimates)
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10th May, 2011
BUDGET 2011-12
Up front payment discount for HECS / HELP halved from 20% to 10% disadvantaging families and students who save for their education expenses and saving Government $479 million
Cost of Labor’s Computers in Schools program has blown out by another $200 million to $1.4 billion even though the number of computers promised has halved
$425 million teacher reward scheme announced
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29th April, 2011
Labor develops a hit list of 1075 non-Government schools to receive $617 million less Government funding a year by abandoning "funding maintained" rules
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17th February, 2011
CFMEU wants an inquiry in the failure of companies working on BER contracts which have left 300 sub-contractors owed $20 million (The Australian)
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27th January, 2011
Government axes the Australian Learning and Teaching Fund from 2012 (saving $88 million)
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27th December, 2010
NSW, VIC and WA all say they will not introduce national curriculum until 2013 (The Australian)
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16th December, 2010
Amongst one third of BER schools money is not yet spent in spite of the fact that the threat of recession is long passed (The Australian)
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9th December, 2010
After months of denial, Government accepts that new national curriculum will not begin in January 2011, but will be delayed until after October 2011. Victoria expects to introduce new curriculum in 2013
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7th December, 2010
OECD study finds Australian 15 year old students are falling behind students in China, Korea, Singapore, Canada, New Zealand and Japan in academic performances
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19th November, 2010
In another emabrrassment for the Government's MySchool website, a remote school in the Northern Territory attended only by 8 students (all children of Government funded farm researchers at Douglas Daly) tops the nation on index of family background and income (The Australian)
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10th November, 2010
Victorian Treasurer John Lenders says the stimulating benefits of the BER had disappeared after the first few months of the $16.2 billion program. Funds were being used by States to accelerate their own school rebuilding program. Projects will not be completed till late 2011 - three years after the stimulus was announced. Victorian Auditor General reports only one in five Victorian projects have been completed to date (The Australian)
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8th November, 2010
Victorian Auditor General says almost two years after BER stimulus was announced only 18% of science and language centre money has been spent and only 35% of primary school funding. Only 62% of primary school projects had even begun. The Federal Government gives Victoria another year to complete the work (The Australian)
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4th November, 2010
Despite repeated denials by Peter Garrett experts say the new national curriculum will have to be delayed until 2012
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28th October, 2010
Government and Independents vote down an inquiry into the BER scheme, even though the average project cost for NSW state schools was $3,900 sqm, Catholic schools $2823 sqm and Independent schools $2,112 sqm
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4th October, 2010
Cowper Public School were told the two demountable classrooms provided only weeks earlier under the BER are to be moved to another school (Australian)
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21st September, 2010
Almost three quarters of Australians enrolling in vocational training courses do not complete them. Younger full time students have stubbornly low completion rates (SMH)
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21st September, 2010
Henty Public School paid $230,000 for the design and management of its BER projects while St Paul's Lutheran School nearby paid only $28,000 for its similar projects
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20th September, 2010
NSW Parliamentary Inquiry finds NSW Government raked almost $100 million from BER program by 'double dipping' on fees (SMH / Aust)
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11th September, 2010
NAPLAN test results for 2010 show no improvement in the performance of secondary students. Queensland continues to rank near the bottom
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13th August, 2010
NSW Government has paid managing contractors a premium of about $160,000 on each of 200 prefabricated buildings it is delivering
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3rd July, 2010
Small NSW school billed $55,400 for expenses under BER even though the school got nothing
Queensland reduces management fees for BER projects
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2nd July, 2010
New Minister for BER Simon Crean proceeds to make $2.1 billion available to the states for new BER projects in spite of having not yet received the report into billions of dollars of waste in the program
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1st July, 2010
Abbortsford Public School paid a $400,000 'inducement' to keep quiet about their BER concerns
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24th June, 2010
Kevin Rudd deposed as Prime Minister and replaced by Ms Julia Gillard
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23rd June, 2010
Libraries complain that Labor's BER school building program is providing libraries but no money for books and equipment
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8th June, 2010
15 Queensland schools earmarked for closure next year receive $4.5 million of new buildings under Labor's BER program
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8th June, 2010
Bureaucrats running Labor's wasteful BER program receive a departmental award for excellence
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27th May, 2010
Classroom block at Pymble Public School built for $1700 sqm for the NSW Government but another classroom block at the same school being built with the same materials under the Rudd Government's BER costs $3595 sqm
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26th May, 2010
$3 million provided to Brookfield State School for a hall that cannot be sewered and breaks building regulations
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22nd May, 2010
One third of cost of school building projects is being spent on bureaucracy and onerous documentation says Melbourne Quantity Surveyors, Swift Construction
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21st May, 2010
Wagga Holy Trinity Catholic School gets a 240 sqm tuck shop for the same price as Tottenham Central Public School gets a 25 sqm tuck shop with no toilet, cold room or space for refrigerators
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19th May, 2010
School canteens built at Catholic schools under Rudd Government's BER program cost up to 5 times less than those built at State Schools
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14th May, 2010
School teacher suspended for changing NAPLAN test results to improve her school's ranking
Students report swapping answers to questions during test lunch breaks
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14th May, 2010
Australian Newspaper reveals that if NSW BER school buildings had been built according to Rawlinson's cost index they would have cost $1.65 billion instead of the $2.98 billion the Government paid
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12th May, 2010
Only 1 in 40 of Federally funded school building projects in Indigenous communities has even started
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11th May, 2010
BUDGET
The 2010-11 Budget allocates $1 billion for cost overruns in school computer program even though number of computers to be supplied is halved from Labor's election promise
Budget slows down the BER school program and extends it to 2013-14
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10th May, 2010
At least 830 state schools will only receive trucked in demountable buildings under Labor's $16 billion BER program
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8th May, 2010
Rawlinson's Construction Handbook excludes BER school buildings from its cost calculations describing costs as 'insane'. School buildings normally cost $1,400 sqm plus fees of $12%. BER school halls are costing $5,400 sqm
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6th May, 2010
Auditor-General reports only 18.6% of BER school building projects meet their start deadline. Funding was meant to be conditional on meeting agreed start and completion dates. The majority of funding has not yet been spent
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5th May, 2010
Simple shcool buildings are costing more than city office buildings per sqm. Construction guide shows school buildings should cost $1350 per sqm but in NSW, BER classrooms are costing taxpayers $4721 per sqm, libraries $5,400 per sqm and canteens $13,306 per sqm
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27th April, 2010
Queensland becomes the second state to admit it is paying tens of millions of dollars of undisclosed management fees for projects under the Government's rorted building education program
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22nd April, 2010
Tarago Public School receives $238,840.23 to refurbish their shade structure which cost only $116,000 to build three years ago. All but $78,682 was spent on overheads
NSW admits that its BER audits do not cover whether the project represents value for money
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12th April, 2010
Rudd Government announces a $14 million taskforce to invetsigate rorts in the school building program to report in six months (after the election)
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9th April, 2010
NSW gives $384 million worth of schools projects to a company over quoting projects and adding 21% in fees
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7th April, 2010
84% of spending under Labor's Education Investment Fund is in Labor electorates. Most of the remainder went to marginal seats
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5th April, 2010
Labor defends its decision to give one third of $847 million BER second round Queensland projects to Leightons who donated $316,000 to Labor in 2008-09
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1st April, 2010
The NSW Labor Government pays supervision fees of up to 21% on BER projects, more than 3 times the Federal Government limit
Consultancies are claiming up to one fifth of $2.1 billion allocated to QLD under BER
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31st March, 2010
The Rudd Labor Government quietly backs down and agrees to allow Holland Park State School to build eight classrooms after requiring for months that the spend $3 million BER funding duplicating their existing library and assembly hall
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31st March, 2010
Overhead fees to build a $1.376 million hall at Lalor Park Public School quoted at $347,000 compared with just $170,000 for a $1.65 million hall at Holy Family School at Emerton
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30th March, 2010
Catholic schools building Covered Outdoor Learning Areas (COLA) are spending between $70,000 and $500,000 while 42 COLAs built at state schools are costing over $800,000 - 21 COLAs have price tags above $954,000
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25th March, 2010
Julia Gillard says she has 'no regrets' about the BER schools program which she regarded as a 'textbook response' to 'economic downturns'
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25th March, 2010
Nashdale Primary School receives $900,000 to build new classrooms when the whole school could have been rebuilt for $200,000 - actual cost of the modular classroom block is $344,000
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25th March, 2010
Companies surveying BER projects will share in profits estimated at $313 million is NSW, QLD and VIC alone
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24th March, 2010
Mount St Thomas Public School was given $2.5 million BER funding for a school hall and canteen but the hall is too small for the school's 310 students. Nearby Holy Spirit College built a 1,600 seat hall for $850,000
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23rd March, 2010
Independent schools offered $8 million by the Rudd Government to audit programs which only cost $3 million to deliver
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20th March, 2010
Hastings Public School set to pay $954,000 for a covered learning area under the Government's school building program even though a similar structure was built in 2003 for $78,000
$5 million has been provided for school building projects at 10 Queensland schools that are closed and the Queensland Labor Government will not give the money back
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20th March, 2010
Building unions exploit Victoria Major Projects system to obtain $80 million of site allowances from Labor's school building projects
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19th March, 2010
Melbourne students are charged $1,410 to take laptops home which were purchased under the Government's $2.1 billion school computer program
Major donors to the ALP receive millions of dollars in management fees and profit sharing from Labor's school building program
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11th March, 2010
Elite Canberra schools, including the one attended by the Prime Minister's son, receive money intended for students for literacy and numeracy training while struggling schools in the Northern Territory receive none
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30th January, 2010
Educators ask why a school with just one pupil in country Queensland has been placed in the same MySchool grouping as a capital city private school with more than 1000 students
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29th January, 2010
Labor's new MySchool website crashes on its first morning
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14th January, 2010
One in five Queensland school leavers seeking a University place will be left without a place
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23rd October, 2009
Labor has delivered just 150,000 of the 970,000 computers it promised to secondary school students before the last election but the cost has already blown out by $500 million
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3rd September, 2009
The Australian Electoral Commission finds that the Rudd Government's $3.8 million school signs are political advertising
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28th August, 2009
The Rudd Government has required all schools to display taxpayer funded signs on school buildings until March 2011, after the next Federal election
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27th August, 2009
The cost of the Rudd Government's school building package budget has blown out by $1.7 billion
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26th June, 2009
The Auditor General launches an investigation into the Government's school building program after reports that billions of dollars are being squandered on projects that are over priced, not priorities and at schools earmarked for demolition or closure
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17th June, 2009
It is revealed that Kevin Rudd's electorate office rang the principal of a school in his electorate asking for a letter that Julia Gillard subsequently read out in Parliament praising the government's school-building program
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17th June, 2009
Mulgildie State School received $250,000 from taxpayers to build a basic 60sq m shed, even though it was quoted $29,000 for the job from a local shed builder for a similar structure
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17th June, 2009
Beechmont State School has received $2 million from the Rudd Labor Government for a small concrete-floored, undercover play area, with no doors and a toilet in a separate building, and $100,000 library extension, in spite of the School previously being quoted on plans for an 800sq m school and community hall, which included a sports facility, kitchen, stage, and toilet, costing only $1.8 million
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16th June, 2009
Holland Park State School in Kevin Rudd's electorate already has a brand new $1.3 million multi-purpose hall, but the school will receive another $1.5 million from taxpaers to build another hall. The school also received an additional $1.5 million to build a resource centre library, even though the school already has a library
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9th June, 2009
The Department of Education, Employment and Workplace Relations has revealed that after 20 months promising computers for every secondary student more than 1000 schools still do not have the required fibre connection to support the installation
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12th May, 2009
BUDGET
Labor's retrospective changes to the independent youth allowance will deny income support to thousands of regional students
Labor will abolish Commonwealth Accommodation Scholarships worth $4,415 a year and replace them with a relocation allowance worth $4,000 in the first year and only $1,000 for the following three years
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27th February, 2009
The Education Investment Fund is $2 billion short of the announced $11 billion
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17th July, 2008
The Rudd Government breaks its promise to provide every secondary school in Australia with its own trade training centre. Trade centres will now only be provided to a cluster of schools
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14th July, 2008
Schools around Australia have rejected Kevin Rudd's $1.2 billion promise to put a computer on the desk of every upper secondary school student because they cannot afford to pay all the additional costs
It is estimated that for every $1 the Rudd Government spends on computers in schools, local schools will be liable for an extra $3 for maintenance, installation, electricity, teacher training and other costs
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3rd July, 2008
States fail to sign up to Labor's training agenda at COAG meeting. Upskilling of workers has now been delayed by at least 6 months, with the States failing to commit to funding 40% of the cost of training under Phase 2 of the Productivity Places Program
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11th March, 2008
Labor axes the $700 tuition vouchers to improve students' numeracy and literacy skills
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20th February, 2008
The successful $1.2 billion Investing In Our Schools Programme is cancelled - Investing In Our Schools had provided grants of up to $150,000 for every school in Australia
Labor reneges on its promise to provide a computer to every year 9 to year 12 school student - instead every student will only have access to a computer
It is revealed that Labor has chronically under funded its “computer for every year 9 to year 12 school student” promise, forcing additional costs on to schools, teachers and parents
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18th February, 2008
Labor axes the Living Away from Home Allowance - extension to Australian school-based apprentices used mainly by students whose homes are away from large cities
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