A brand new government school will be built at Craigieburn West giving local students access to a high quality education.

The Brumby Government today called for Expressions of Interest (EOI) from the private sector to build the new Craigieburn West Primary which is scheduled to be open in time for the 2011 school year.

“The Brumby Government is committed to providing state-of-the-art educational facilities for the growing number of families in Hume,” Ms Pike said.

Ms Pike said the successful private sector consortium would design and build the schools and then manage the facility, including ongoing maintenance and cleaning. The Government will retain responsibility for all teaching services and the curriculum.

“These new arrangements will deliver modern schools in our growing suburbs while allowing principals to concentrate on leading great schools and helping students, rather than focusing on day-to-day building and maintenance issues,” Ms Pike said.

The prospective bidders would work with the Government to make a real difference to the future of young Victorians.

Ms Pike said the new schools would provide better facilities for students sooner.

“These new partnerships help us to build new schools quickly in the fastest growing areas of the State,” she said.

Local MP Liz Beattie said the plan to develop the school through a public private partnership opened up the possibility of new innovative designs for the school.

“This new school will give local kids a great education as part of this government’s record investment in our students,” Ms Beattie said.

“This growing part of Melbourne deserves a new school with high quality facilities.”

She said she looked forward to reviewing the plans once they were developed.

The EOI will be available at the Tenders Victoria website at www.tenders.vic.gov.au. The EOI closes at 2pm on Thursday March 20, 2008. Details of the short-listed consortia will be announced approximately six weeks after the EOI closing date.