Every South Australian preschool and children’s centre is set to receive a high-speed internet connection, as part of the second stage of the Marshall Government’s high-speed internet rollout to education sites across the state.
The second stage of the rollout also includes improved internet security across all schools, improved content filtering software and the implementation of a modern network architecture designed to maximise the benefits of new, high-speed internet connections for all sites.
Education Minister John Gardner said the announcement would ensure South Australia’s schools and preschools had access to modern, cutting edge technology.
“We are excited to be partnering with Telstra to deliver the second stage of the Marshall Government’s high speed internet rollout, ensuring our schools and preschools can access high speed internet connections safely, and to maximum effect,” said Minister Gardner.
“Schools connected to date have been overwhelmingly positive about their experience, using their increased speeds and reliability to support the delivery of innovative lessons and learning to students.
“The expansion of the fibre rollout to preschools and children’s centres is exciting news and will solve long standing issues with internet performance at these sites.
“While work towards today’s announcement has been underway for many months, the coronavirus pandemic has highlighted the importance of our students and educators having access to fast, reliable and safe technology to deliver modern learning.
“We are leading our education system on a journey from having the slowest and least reliable internet infrastructure on mainland Australia when we came to government, to this year becoming the best and fastest in the country.
“Our school students, teachers and preschool educators across the state will now be able to access the applications and information they need, when they need them, with the assurance they are protected by world class security and content filtering systems.”
The first stage of the internet rollout has already seen more than 171,000 students and more than 21,000 educators connected to date at 460 sites, with the remaining schools on track to be connected by the middle of this year.
It is expected that the expansion to preschools and children’s centres will be complete by mid-2021.
Telstra Enterprise and Government Executive John Ieraci said he was proud to partner with the Government to deliver another stage of the ground-breaking project.
“We are proud to partner with the Department for Education to build not only a high speed, state-of-the-art network, but also a safe internet experience for South Australian children from preschool to Year 12,” said Mr Ieraci.
“Making sure kids are safe when they are online at school is a fundamental part of ensuring the most out of today’s connected education experience.
“Telstra Purple is working with the world’s best security technology partners, Palo Alto Networks, Saasyan and Cisco Systems, to deliver this safe solution to almost 900 schools and preschools statewide.”
