NSW Budget: Education infrastructure funding up 61 per cent in $4.2 billion school building room

The NSW Government will start building or upgrading more than 120 schools and complete work on another 33 over the next four years with a whopping $1.6 Billion increase on last year’s Budget.

Premier Gladys Berejiklian, Treasurer Dominic Perrottet and Education Minister Rob Stokes today announced $4.2 billion will be spent on new schools and significant school upgrades over four years.

This is a 61 per cent increase on last year’s Budget commitment and is the biggest NSW Government investment in education infrastructure in history.

The 120 new and upgraded schools will create 32,000 more student places and 1500 new classrooms across NSW.

“The NSW Government is already building the roads, public transport and other hard infrastructure we need – now it’s time for a huge investment in the social infrastructure we need, including schools,” Ms Berejiklian said.

“In this year’s Budget, we are committing more funding to the construction of new schools and more school upgrades than Labor did in their last 11 years of office combined. We are spending more on school infrastructure in four years than Labor did in their last eight in government.”

Today’s announcement was made at Kent Road Public School in Marsfield, which will get more than 20 classrooms and upgrades to the existing school hall, library and student amenities.

Treasurer Dominic Perrottet said the projects announced today were part of a long-term commitment to ensure NSW schools could cater for surging student numbers.

“This historic investment means the children of NSW will have access to world-class education in world-class facilities for decades to come,” Mr Perrottet said.

Education Minister Rob Stokes said a newly created specialist school delivery unit, called School Infrastructure NSW, has been tasked with responsibility for planning, delivering and maintaining the expanded program of capital works and consulting with communities.

“Providing the schools to cater for the next generation of NSW students is a big task, but it’s a wonderful challenge to have,” Mr Stokes said.

New or upgraded high schools or major rebuilds of existing high schools include locations at Picton, Sydney Olympic Park, and Oran Park, while new or upgraded primary schools are set to be delivered at locations right across the State including at Catherine Fields, North Kellyville, Penshurst, Schofields and Ryde.

The new projects are additional to projects previously announced such as the new high-rise Inner Sydney high school at Surry Hills, the high rise Arthur Phillip High School at Parramatta and Ballina High School.

More details of the new school projects announced today can be found on the new School Infrastructure NSW website schoolinfrastructure.nsw.gov.au.