Fiery debate over computers in schools
The Federal Government and Opposition have brandished verbal fists over the government's 2007 election promise to provide a computer to each of Australia's year 9 to 12 students.
Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Education and School Curriculum Standards Brett Mason called the initiative an "election campaign stunt" and an "embarrassment for the Rudd Government".
The government has said that 297,000 computers were delivered as of the end of May and put out a press release today saying it had just delivered the 300,000th computer.
"Kevin Rudd needs to deliver on his promise of one million computers for one million students by the end of 2011. At the rate he's going now, it will take him until the second half of this decade to fulfil Kevin07's election promise," Mason said.
"Many students who were in Year 9 when Kevin Rudd made the commitment will finish high school without ever seeing their promised computer," he said.
Furthermore, the provision of the computers was only half the promise, Mason said. "None of the computers under this program have been connected to fast 100 megabits per second fibre broadband, as also promised by Mr Rudd in 2007."
"We are told that the roll-out of fibre connections to schools under the Digital Education Revolution, as promised in 2007, is being held back on account of planning and future implementation of the National Broadband Network. So we have a situation where one broken promise and a policy fiasco is being excused by another, even bigger and more expensive policy fiasco."
He said that without the internet connection, the computers were "glorified typewriters".
The Department of Education Employment and Workplace Relations declined to comment, but in its press release today said it was on track to provide a computer for every year 9 to 12 student by the end of 2011.
"By the end of 2011, 780,000 computers will have been delivered taking the number of computers in schools for those grades to almost 1 million," the release said. Replacements would be available every four years, according to the release.
The release slammed opposition leader Tony Abbott's promise to chop the program, saying that he was consigning kids to typewriters and carbon paper.
"When in government, the Coalition allowed the computer age to pass them by. By the time the Rudd Government has rolled this program out, we will have achieved a 1:1 ratio of students in years 9 to 12 with access to a computer," it said.