AUSTRALIA: The federal government is to spend more than $160 million (pound;60m) on raising school standards in science, maths and technology, including $34 million on developing online curriculum resources.
The funding is part of a $3 billion package to help Australia catch up with Asian competitors, Singapore and Hong Kong, in technological innvation. Teachers would also be offered retraining and professional development under a new loans scheme for postgraduates designed to underpin the schools package. The $1bn scheme will enable 240,000 students to undertake postgraduate courses over five years, and 21,000 new undergraduate places will be created in universities by 2006.
