Two major education funding announcements that total $20 million were made recently by Education Minister Don Morgan.
The government announced the reallocation of $16.6 million for the purchase of 46 new relocatable classrooms across the province, as well as moving nine other relocatables from site-to-site. The announcement was made so these classrooms can be in place for the start of the 2016-17 school year.
“Even in times of spending restraint, our government believes it’s vital to continue supporting schools and communities experiencing rapid growth,” said Morgan. “Relocatable classrooms allow our school divisions to be flexible and to accommodate changes in enrolment as our communities continue to grow and develop in Saskatchewan. This important investment will ensure that the needs of our province’s students and teachers are put first.”
Morgan also announced a $3.4 million grant for CommunityNet, which will provide for continued bandwidth upgrades in provincial schools where needed across the province. The investment in network infrastructure is a step in the right direction to addressing the bandwidth issues that schools have been experiencing.
CommunityNet connects educational facilities, Saskatchewan schools, regional colleges and public libraries, health agencies and government departments and agencies into a private network, offering high speed broadband services to both urban and rural areas.
As part of the program to increase bandwidth, SaskTel will assume administrative responsibility for the CommunityNet network and begin making necessary investments to provide the new bandwidth in the coming weeks.
