Education and Training Minister Sue Ellery today announced Western Australian public schools will benefit from a major boost in bandwidth providing students with faster access to educational content online.
The Department of Education has worked with its current provider, Telstra, to plan a series of significant bandwidth upgrades to schools across the State over the next 12 to 18 months at no additional cost.
More than 500 schools will see a tripling of effective bandwidth for each staff member and every student, with many other schools receiving double their current allocation.
This is in addition to a number of initiatives such as enhanced bandwidth services for remote schools, and tools for schools to effectively manage their network usage. Standard Operating Environment firewalls in some schools will also be upgraded.
Upgrades will begin at 18 pilot schools from the start of Term 4 this year, with bandwidth increases at the majority of public schools rolled out during 2020.
The pilot schools are: Pinjarra Senior High School; Falcon Primary School; Ocean Road Primary School; Mullewa District High School, Gingin District High School; Dongara District High School; Kalbarri District High School; Carnarvon School of the Air; Leonora District High School; York District High School; Roebourne District High School; Wickham Primary School; Pannawonica Primary School; Donnybrook District High School; WA College of Agriculture, Denmark; Bremer Bay Primary School; Denmark Primary School and Kingston Primary School.
As stated by Education and Training Minister Sue Ellery:
"The State Government is committed to students having access to the latest technology by ensuring our schools are better connected online through these significant bandwidth upgrades.
"This bandwidth blueprint takes the best of what we currently have in public schools, while adopting emerging opportunities to provide schools with the flexibility and option to push the boundaries of technology.
"This is a significant undertaking as the Department of Education's network stretches further than any other agency in WA, and indeed any other agency across Australia. Notionally the network would circle the earth more than six times."
Minister's office - 6552 5700
