Broadband too costly for schools

KATHY WEBB
A Government project to get high-speed internet technology into isolated rural schools has hit a snag with some schools unable to pay the high cost of using it.
Putere School, south of Wairoa, was given a satellite dish as part of project PROBE, a joint project by the Ministry of Education and the Ministry of Economic Development.
The project was to provide rural schools in isolated areas, where telecommunications are of variable quality at the best of times, with broadband coverage to help with their information technology programmes.
However, getting a satellite dish proved to be of little use to Putere School. With only 19 pupils and a total operations budget of $50,000 a year, the $1200 cost of broadband was far too high.
Principal Rebecca Stevens said the school had to pay for power, phone, a secretary and caretaker, auditing, and increasingly numerous compliance costs, such as $20 monthly testing of the school's drinking water, "let alone teacher aides or new computers".
"Twelve hundred dollars might not sound like a lot, but to us it's a lot," she said.
The school's internet connection was "slow and painful" , so broadband would be a high priority if it were affordable, "but at this stage we need to spend the money on other things".
She had been told that most of the 60 schools given satellite dishes under Project PROBE would be in exactly the same predicament. Few, if any, would use them.
The project was a good idea in principle, but too expensive for the schools it was meant to help, Ms Stevens said. School operations grants had gone up in line with inflation, but not in line with increased compliance costs, which were taking money from other things. Some schools had even stopped giving children swimming lessons because new demands for frequent water-testing had made it too expensive to run school pools.
Ohuka School, north of Wairoa, was the other school in the district to get a free satellite dish. It then looked into access deals, but decided against signing a $100-a-month contract with Iconz, which is subsidised by the Ministry of Education to provide broadband access as part of Project PROBE.
Instead, Ohuka found a cheaper package from iHug, which costs $100 a month for 10 months, then two months free - an annual cost of $1000.
School secretary Gaylene Bull said the $200 saved by signing with iHug was good money to the school. "We have fast satellite-in, and that's all that's required. We don't need fast satellite-out."
"We looked at broadband but didn't go with it because that would be two months dearer. Broadband's a better service, but we didn't see a need for it when it's $200 more."
The cost of broadband seemed to be related to location. Just one valley away from Ohuka School, people could get it for $39.95 a month, she said.
Putere and Ohuka were among 60 schools in 13 provinces around New Zealand to get the free satellite dishes. Bob Sheldrake, principal of Patoka School north-west of Napier, said his school did not have broadband, even though it was available in the district.
"The Ministry has said every school will have access, but it's the cost, it's too expensive," he said.
Patoka's telecommunications were "not as good as we would like. We have power cuts and wind".
But he believed it would cost $150 a month for the school to get broadband. That might be acceptable to a bigger school with more pupils and a bigger budget, but it was unacceptable for 45-pupil Patoka, Mr Sheldrake said.
Simon Greening, head of Puketitiri School, said he didn't have broadband, and wouldn't take it up if it cost $100 a month.
Puketitiri was on dial-up access for about $27 a month.