Schools have now nominated the projects they would like to be considered for funding under the National School Pride and Primary Schools of the 21st Century components of the Commonwealth Government's Building the Education Revolution program.

Nominations were received from 2,186 schools for 12,751 different projects. This was a difficult task undertaken by schools in a short timeframe. All school communities are to be congratulated, and special thanks must go to School Principals and P&C leaders who worked tirelessly to make the submissions.

The department has now commenced the assessment of these nominations prior to forwarding funding applications to the Commonwealth. Applications for National School Pride Round 1 are due to the Commonwealth on 24 March 2009.

The Commonwealth Government will be assessing project applications prior to granting funding approval. Once they have made the decision and advised us of which projects have been approved the department will contact schools and will place a full list of approved projects on the internet.

We are expecting to receive more detailed information from the Commonwealth Government about the nomination process for the Science & Language Centres for 21st Century Secondary Schools Program. Once this information is received High School Principals will be given time to work with their school communities and provide nominations before the Commonwealth Government's deadline of 31 May 2009.

For more information about BER visit www.det.nsw.edu.au/strat_direction/schools/ber/index.htm 

For contractors, trades people or suppliers interested in working on Building the Education Revolution visit www.det.nsw.edu.au/strat_direction/schools/ber/registration/index.htm to register your details with the department.