Happy faces: Six year olds Cambell and Jarrod of Whittington Primary with MP Richard Marles.
THE 71 Building the Education Revolution projects in Australia’s most marginal electorate of Corangamite are 99 per cent complete.
Corangamite received $130 million from the Federal government’s economic stimulus fund.
Corio’s 54 schools received $102 million and are 74 per cent complete.
The figures were released by Corio MP Richard Marles as the latest project completion was announced at Whittington Primary School.
Whittington PS received $925,000 used to completely remodel the inside of the school and buy a new boiler and computer whiteboards.
“The old pokey classrooms have been expanded into larger, more flexible learning spaces,” Mr Marles said.
The announcement was one of a “wave” of school building openings in recent weeks, Mr Marles said.
The $16.2 billion Building the Education Revolution program aimed to modernise school infrastructure while supporting local jobs and stimulating investment, he said.
“Corio now has 17 new libraries, 23 new school halls, dozens of new classrooms, language centres, ICT centres, science labs, gymnasiums, outdoor learning areas and refurbished playgrounds.”
Mr Marles said the BER part-funded the state of the art Katsumata Centre at Kardinia International College, winning a regional builder of the year award for Lyons Construction.
“Lyons Construction worked on 11 schools in the Corio electorate, each supporting an average of 25 tradespeople.
“The creation of jobs underscores this program,” he said.
“Local businesses like Ezy Shades say demand for outdoor shade structures from the schools sector kicked in when domestic work all but dried up.
“That meant ongoing work for six people and their families.
“For some schools it is the first major injection of capital funds since they opened 30 or 40 years ago.”
