Education and Training Minister Sue Ellery today announced that bandwidth capacity at Broome Senior High School has increased by 40 times as part of a McGowan Government initiative to improve access to online learning materials.
In December 2020, the State Government announced that almost all Western Australian public schools, including Broome Senior High School, would receive significant bandwidth increases to meet the growing demand for students to access online learning materials.
The upgrades, which are now in use at Broome Senior High School, provide faster and more efficient access to online classroom tools and allow the school to use a full range of technologies, including high-definition multimedia content.
The improvements also allow for better bandwidth performance during key education assessments, such as NAPLAN, as well as during video conferencing and while downloading documents.
Students studying specialist subject areas, such as media, are also benefiting from the upgrades.
The bandwidth boosts not only increase the digital capacity for schools across WA, they also provide surrounding communities with significant levels of spare bandwidth capacity, which can be used by telecommunication service providers to deliver services to the community.
As stated by Education and Training Minister Sue Ellery:
“Schools are increasingly using digital technologies in the classroom to access learning resources.
“The bandwidth upgrades at Broome Senior High School are enabling students to successfully enhance their education with online tools.
“This project is also increasing wholesale consumer bandwidth capacity around schools, which means that regional communities across the State are also benefiting from the upgrades.
“This means the local community will also be able to benefit from the spare bandwidth capacity.”
As stated by Kimberley MLA Divina D’Anna:
“It’s more important than ever for Kimberley students and school staff to have quality access to online learning.
“Increasing Broome Senior High School’s bandwidth capacity by 40 times will provide a significant benefit to the school and its community, and I’m proud to be part of a government that is prioritising improving regional access to important online resources.”
