200 IT jobs going into Vic schools

The Victorian Premier John Brumby announced yesterday that the state will hire 200 computer technicians for its schools as the computers for the government's Digital Education Revolution make their way to students.

John Brumby
(Credit: Victorian Government)

The extra technicians would become part of a team of almost 620 specialists who would oversee the arrival of over 104,000 computers into schools.

According to Education Minister Bronwyn Pike, schools will begin to receive their computers in the third term, three weeks away.

"This is a huge boost for Victoria's ICT industry, and yet another example of the Brumby Government putting Victorian students first and providing them with the support they need to master the ICT skills which will help them thrive in a technology-driven world," Pike said.

Schools are able to choose their computers from a product list endorsed by the Department of Education and Early Childhood Development which will contain a number of notebooks starting from under $600. The list is still being finalised.

Each school will get $1250 for each computer to cover its upfront cost as well as running costs such as servers, software, laptop trolleys, electricity and insurance costs.

The Department is managing some of the costs centrally such as Microsoft licensing, and also has a large reseller agreement signed with Commander Integrated Networks and Insight Enterprises Australia worth $23 million, which runs out at the end of this year.