Magnum Silencium descends on Computers in Schools

“The school year has drawn to a close and the Government has gone quiet on the computers in schools programme, which was the centrepiece of Labor’s 2007 education policies,” said Christopher Pyne, Shadow Minister for Education.

“This is because the December 2011 deadline has arrived and the programme is hundreds of thousands of computers behind schedule,” Mr Pyne said. 

“In 2007 Kevin Rudd waved a laptop at a press conference announcing that the ‘toolbox of the 21^st century’ would be delivered to every student in Australia in years 9-12,” he said. 

“Mr Rudd promised 1,000,000 computers at $1,000 each costing the government $1 billion to be fully delivered by December 2011.

“Upon entering office, the Education Minister Julia Gillard immediately abandoned this goal.

“The Government surveyed existing computers in schools that were less than four years old and have since included them in their calculations. It was a con job and a broken promise, the first of many.

“However, even taking into account the more than 200,000 existing computers, some of which might now be eight years old, the Government is still hundreds of thousands of computers from a one to one ratio,” Mr Pyne said. 

In October the Government had delivered just over half of the promised 1,000,000 new computers. Even with the existing computers added to the tally there were hundreds of thousands needed to reach the one to one ratio by December.

“Here we are in December and the Government’s silence says it all,” Mr Pyne said. 

“There is a cohort of students who were in year nine at the beginning of 2008 whose parents may have voted Kevin Rudd into office that have gone through year ten, eleven and twelve without ever receiving a free computer,” he said.

“Some states now routinely charge parents for the computers with reports of hiring costs and fees to take laptops home. This free programme has become a cost for already stretched Australian parents.

“However most disappointing of all is that the computers in schools programme that was meant to cost $1 billion has cost $2.4 billion, a staggering blow-out.

“This has added to Labor’s record debt and deficit that all Australians are paying the price for through higher taxes.

“I challenged Schools Minister, Peter Garrett to resign if he failed to deliver the computers in schools programme as promised by December, after he insisted several times during the year that it was on schedule.

“In light of this new failure, it might be time for him to reconsider his position and put the national interest ahead of his own, since even the Prime Minister wants him to resign,” Mr Pyne said.

December 18, 2011