Labor promises laptops for high school students
State Labor is promising to spend $70 million to provide laptops to all Year 10 students in public schools.
The move, announced this morning, will equip every Year 10 student in a public school with a laptop which they can keep after graduating from high school.
The $70 million price tag will be spread over five years, “with all year 10, 11 and 12 public school students to have personal laptops by 2021”.
A “trial laptop roll-out” will begin in a number of schools from the second term of this year, with the program extending to all Year 10 public school students in 2019.
Under the policy, schools that already have laptop programs will “allocate the devices currently being used by year 10 students to other students in the school”.
Premier Jay Weatherill said the policy went hand-in-hand with another election promise, made over the weekend, to upgrade broadband speeds in public schools.
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“Unfortunately, not every family can afford a home computer, let alone personal laptops for their children,” he said.
“Labor believes that education should be accessible to everyone, and this initiative will help our public school students to get ahead.”
He said he did not want the income of a family to determine the access of a student to education.
Education Minister Susan Close said the policy was connected to moves to modernise the South Australian Certificate of Education, with some exams moving online.
She said schools had different programs for providing laptops, including leasing of computers, which would be replaced by the new scheme.
